{"id":99297,"date":"2025-02-13T15:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-13T20:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=99297"},"modified":"2025-03-05T09:27:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T14:27:36","slug":"its-a-love-story-history-and-taylor-swift-brocks-version","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/02\/its-a-love-story-history-and-taylor-swift-brocks-version\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a love story: History and Taylor Swift (Brock\u2019s Version)"},"content":{"rendered":"

While it\u2019s no secret Taylor Swift has captured hearts across the globe with her musical mastery, Elizabeth Vlossak is shining a spotlight on another area of the celebrated musician\u2019s expertise.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through a new course this spring, the Associate Professor of History is exploring Swift not only as a pop culture phenomenon, but also as something else entirely: a historian.<\/p>\n

Vlossak \u2014 a self-proclaimed \u201cSwiftie\u201d \u2014 is bringing her unique take to Brock students through \u201cA Swift History,\u201d which will introduce history and historical methods through Swift\u2019s music, career and fandom.<\/p>\n

While most Swift-related education courses in Canada generally focus on music and business, Vlossak\u2019s course will take the road less travelled \u2014 into the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorical research involves asking questions, like why and how an event took place, and then finding and interpreting evidence to piece the story together to answer those questions, including why it matters,\u201d Vlossak says. \u201cSwift engages with the past like a historian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vlossak has long been interested in how Swift evokes the past through her music, and has written about the historical figures and events Swift has woven into her lyrics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With her eighth studio album folkore<\/em> (2020), Swift ventured beyond telling the stories of her own history and began detailing the lives of people of the past and connected historical events.<\/p>\n

Among the many examples Vlossak cites is \u201cThe Last Great American Dynasty,\u201d which tells the story of Rebekah Harkness (1915-1982), an American philanthropist and composer known for her \u201cscandalous\u201d behaviour at her home in Rhode Island \u2014 a house that Swift now owns.<\/p>\n

Swift\u2019s engagement with the past through her songwriting goes beyond simply telling a story; Vlossak argues that she also \u201cthinks historically.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSwift is fascinated by time and meticulously records dates; she reflects on causes and consequences; she considers different perspectives and competing interpretations; and she references primary sources like photographs, letters, diaries and material culture \u2014 the building blocks of historical research,\u201d Vlossak says.<\/p>\n

Swift\u2019s interest in primary sources can be found in the song \u201cMarjorie\u201d in which Swift sings about the artifacts of her grandmother\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwift asks poignantly what happens when all the \u2018artifacts\u2019 of a person\u2019s life, from their clothes, to letters, to grocery lists disappear after they die. How do we tell their stories? These are questions that historians ask: what can we learn about the past through these sources, and how do we study people who have left few or no records behind,\u201d Vlossak says.<\/p>\n

In addition to studying what history is and related research methodologies, students in Vlossak\u2019s course will learn more about some of the historical events and figures that Swift has referenced in her songwriting, including the \u201cwitch craze\u201d of the 16th century, the First World War and 1920s silent film star Clara Bow.<\/p>\n

Swift herself will also be the subject of historical inquiry as students explore the history of fandom and women in the arts and popular culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a cultural phenomenon who has changed the face of pop music and challenged the music industry (for example, by reclaiming her master recordings), Taylor Swift is already considered a historical figure,\u201d Vlossak says. \u201cBut how will historians write about Taylor Swift and interpret her life and legacy in 20 or even 100 years?\u201d<\/p>\n

Vlossak says studying Swift through a historical lens can help students understand historiography \u2014 the history of historical writing, or the \u201chistory of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the purpose of history? Whose history do we write and how does this affect the stories that are told or not told? Just like Taylor Swift as she moves from one era to the next, history is not static,\u201d she says. \u201cOur understanding of the past is constantly evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information about\u00a0Brock\u2019s spring\/summer course offerings, including \u201cA Swift History,\u201d is available online.<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo credit:\u00a0Paolo V<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>, via Wikimedia Commons.<\/em><\/p>\n

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