The university hosting an academic conference on Taylor Swift hopes that 'TayTay' will make an appearance

Composite image of Taylor Swift and the University of Melbourne

Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times and Getty Images

• The University of Melbourne is hosting an academic conference on Taylor Swift in 2024.
• The organizers hope that Swift, who will be in Australia at the same time for the Eras Tour, will speak at their event.
• They're seeking paper submissions on topics like "one single symbolic dollar" or Taylor Swift, #metoo, and the law.

Swiftie scholars rejoice: the University of Melbourne is hosting the "Swiftposium," an academic conference on Taylor Swift, and its organizers are hoping Swift will make an appearance. 

Jennifer Beckett, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne and one of the conference organizers, told the BBC on Thursday that they've left a space open in the conference's speaker lineup in case Swift chooses to attend.

"TayTay if you want to come, we'd love to have you," Beckett added.

The "Swiftposium" is due to take place at the same time as Swift's Eras Tour stop in Australia in February next year, according to its organizers' website.

"Taylor Swift really does have a very concrete impact globally, across things that affect all of us," Beckett told the BBC.

The "Swiftposium" aims to discuss the implications of Swift's impact on a range of issues including gender, the economy, and mental health, per the organizers' website.

Here are some of the topics the organizers are seeking paper submissions from researchers for — and the Swift lyrics that the organizers picked to represent them:

• "One single symbolic dollar" — Taylor Swift, #metoo, and the law.

• "And when you can't sleep at night (you hear my stolen lullabies)" — Taylor Swift, streaming platforms, and intellectual property (Taylor's version).

• "If I was a man, then I'd be The Man" — Taylor Swift, and gender and sexuality.

At the time of writing, Swift has not yet publicly responded to news of the conference.

This isn't the first time that the pop icon has become the subject of scholarly attention.

A literature professor in Belgium announced in August that she was launching a course this fall titled, "Literature: Taylor's Version," using Swift's music as a jumping-off point for talking about literary figures like Shakespeare and Charlotte Brontë.

And this course is just one of many featuring Swift's lyrics today. According to USA Today, Swift's writing has been increasingly showing up as required reading in college syllabuses.

Swift's Eras Tour is on track to break records to become the highest-grossing concert in the world, according to analytics firm QuestionPro. The firm also estimated that the Eras Tour's stops in the US would generate $4.6 billion in consumer spending. 

The Eras Tour's boost to local economies was such that her concerts' impact on hotel revenues was highlighted by the Federal Reserve. However, Larry Adam, the chief investment officer at investment bank Raymond James, told Insider in August that "the short-term economic boost from Taylor Swift's 'Eras Tour' is ending as it moves overseas."

Being a swiftie could even land you a job. USA Today put out a vacancy last week for a Taylor Swift reporter, to cover the star's impact across the music and business worlds, with a salary of up to $100,000. 

Representatives of Swift and the conference's organizers did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider

from Business Insider https://ift.tt/O1ApyNH