Lectures For Lifelong Learners!

You don’t need to be a Taylor Swift fan to appreciate how popular culture processes history. This lecture uses Swift’s songwriting as a window into how we remember (and misremember) our past. Through close readings of Swift’s historical references, from Shakespeare to World War II and the Medieval period to the Gilded Age, we’ll explore the power of myth-making through popular music. Let’s take an unexpected journey through history, memory, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we were – all through the music of the world’s most famous songstress.