In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, Taylor Swift is in Australia this week. Whether or not you’re a ‘Swifty’, this is a major deal and as you read this, a PhD student from the ANU is presenting a paper at the “Swiftposium” in Melbourne – an academic conference devoted to Taylor Swift.
Madeline Pentland, of the ANU’s School of History, will join scholars from seven Australian and NZ universities to discuss Swift’s profound impact on gender, fandom, pop culture, literature, economy and music industry.
She’ll also catch Taylor Swift’s concert while she’s there, purely for research purposes.
“My subject is women in Australian politics from the ‘90s and my paper is on political speech using Taylor Swift lyrics,” Madeline says. “I take a look at why politicians are saying these lyrics in parliament.
“The most famous one is Scott Morrison, who has used Shake it Off lyrics in parliament, once when he was treasurer and once when he was Prime Minister. He gives that analogy of ‘forget the past’, ‘shake it off’. It’s an example of how a politician can use sayings like this easily in parliament to get a point across, relatability.
As Taylor Swift grew in popularity, so did her lyrics in the Australian Parliament Hansard.
“Politicians were attaching to her popularity and engaging with a younger audience,” Madeline says. “[Former NSW Senator] Sam Dastyari in 2015 went viral in a global sense when he recited three verses of Blank Space in the Senate after the second leadership spill. He was saying the deputy leader Julie Bishop should have a theme song, then he landed on Blank Space, a modern soliloquy for the Liberal Party.”
Madeline is not alone in her fascination with Tay Tay, the ANU has its own Taylor Swift Society (est. 2021) complete with its own constitution and executive committee.
Society president, Mikayla Simpson, has somehow managed to buy a hotly sought-after ticket to Swift’s Sydney show.
“It sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud but we borrowed my mum’s colleague’s husband’s Amex card to get a VIP in the Amex pre-sale,” she says. ”It was hard to get.”
As president of the ANU Taylor Swift Appreciation Society, Mikayla divides her time between studying environment and sustainability and promoting the society on campus.
“I oversee the AGMs, elections, social media and events such as Paper Ring picnic – based on the song where we made origami rings – trivia night, and a cocktail night to raise money for UNITED24 to help deliver ambulances to Ukraine.”
Membership of the Society sits at about 100 and costs $2 for a subscription. The executive committee is formed democratically and at AGMs, after voting, executives make friendship bracelets for each other.
Mikayla saw Taylor Swift in concert in 2015 and 2018 and has already ordered a deluxe CD of her upcoming 11th album.
“I can’t really put it into words, [her concerts] are just the most electric atmosphere when you’re there,” she says. “I‘ve not been to a concert that’s compared to one of her concerts, even Harry Styles, it did not compare to Taylor Swift at all. The story-telling aspect makes an incredible show.”
While there’s no ANU degree in Swiftism, in America’s Arizona State University you can study Psychology of Taylor Swift and at Stanford University you can undertake an in-depth analysis of Swift’s song All Too Well. Berklee College of Music also offers courses on the singer’s lyrics, legacy and pop culture reign.
The Australian National University, for now, only offers the Taylor Swift Society.
The Society’s next event is a “listening party” to hear Swift’s new album release in April, The Tortured Poets Department.
“We’re very keen to hear it,” Mikayla says. “Based on the title alone, I think it’s going to be one of her best albums.”
