"Swiftposium": University to host academic conference on Taylor Swift

If you’re a scholarly Swiftie, you’ll be happy to know you can attend an academic conference all about Taylor Swift and her musical and cultural impact.

The University of Melbourne announced that Swiftposium 2024: An academic conference on Taylor Swift will take place from Sunday, February 11, to Tuesday, February 13, 2024.

The conference will allow “scholars to engage in dialogue about Swift’s popularity and its profound implications for a range of issues including gender, fandom, popular culture, literature, the economy, the music industry, and more.”

Swiftposium will be held just before the pop star kicks off her Eras Tour in Australia in mid-February.

The event page says Swiftposium has been organized by scholars from seven universities across Australia and New Zealand, including the University of Melbourne, Curtin University, The University of Queensland, and the Auckland University of Technology.

Researchers from the Asia-Pacific region are invited to submit conference proposals related to several themes that touch on Swift’s body of work and its social and cultural implications.

Some of the themes include:

• You know I adore you, I’m crazier for you: The phenomenon of fandom, including its histories, psychological underpinnings, and social implications.
• Shade never made anybody less gay: Taylor Swift’s relationship to social movements such as feminism and LGBTQ+ rights, including her influence on political discourse and advocacy.
• When my depression works the graveyard shift: Mental health discourse and Taylor Swift.
• You’re really gonna be someone: Reflecting on Taylor Swift’s impact on contemporary discourses about gender, identity, race, and intersectionality.
• ‘I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere’: Taylor Swift as pop culture catalyst, prophet and mirror.
• ’Cause baby, now we’ve got bad blood: Taylor Swift’s marketing strategy and communications.

Swiftposium also invites proposals that fall outside its set teams.

“Critical engagement with the Taylor Swift phenomenon is encouraged, and diverse voices and opinions are welcome.”

The singer-songwriter has been making headlines and breaking records with her massive Eras world tour and the announcement of her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) album and the Eras Tour movie.

A European university recently announced it would be offering a literature course dedicated to Swift, and USA Today and its affiliate publication, The Tennessean, are hiring a reporter who focuses solely on the pop star and her larger-than-life cultural presence.

Swiftposium will take place at the University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia. It is a hybrid event, meaning presenters can attend in person and online.

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