A student reading news about the Celebrity Studies: Taylor Swift In Focus class at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City on Feb 22. PHOTO: REUTERS 
Dr Cherish Brillon gives a lecture during the Celebrity Studies: Taylor Swift In Focus class at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City on Feb 22. PHOTO: REUTERS 
A student reading news about the Celebrity Studies: Taylor Swift In Focus class at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City on Feb 22. PHOTO: REUTERS
MANILA – The Taylor Swift craze has arrived in classrooms in the Philippine capital, with a premier university rolling out a celebrity studies course examining the American singer and her impact on global pop culture.
As the 34-year-old performer visits Asia this week, more than 300 students signed up for the elective course at the University of the Philippines, filling limited slots within minutes and prompting the administration to launch an extra class.
“We’re going to treat Taylor Swift as a celebrity, which means we’re going to look at her from the lens of various ways of thinking such as the intersection of sex, gender and class,” Dr Cherish Brillon, a professor in the broadcast communications department, said after her first lecture.
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Herself a Swiftie, as fans of the singer are popularly known, Dr Brillon said the course would also study media portrayals of Swift and how the singer is viewed in the Philippines as a “transnational” figure.
Some of the two dozen students wore Swift merchandise and adorned their notebooks and laptops with stickers featuring the 14-time Grammy Award winner.
“I would love to delve deeper into the societal issues that we face in connection to Taylor Swift,” said student Shyne Canezal, a Swiftie since grade school.
American universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Berklee College of Music have offered courses on Swift, tackling her songwriting and offering literary takes on her discography, among other topics.
Swift is set to perform six sold-out Eras Tour shows in Singapore – her only stop in South-east Asia – from March 2 to 9. More than 300,000 tickets were sold to fans, who queued overnight in the blistering tropical heat. REUTERS
Originally published at: The Straits Times
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