Special Area: Taylor Swift & Swiftie Studies

We are introducing a new special area!

Taylor Swift & Swiftie Studies

Chaired by Ellen Orsi, George Mason University, EOrsi@gmu.edu

The Taylor Swift & Swiftie Studies area is dedicated to the emerging interdisciplinary field that examines Taylor Swift’s work as a site of cultural, literary, and theoretical inquiry.

Its purpose is twofold: to create space that fosters ongoing academic dialogue and to archive the growing body of scholarship surrounding Swift’s work and its interpretive communities.

This area places particular emphasis on exploring the literary merit of Swift’s songwriting and narrative construction, engaging her work through frameworks commonly associated with literary studies, including close reading and adaptation. At the same time, it attends to the role of fan communities and digital platforms in shaping meaning, circulation, and reception.

By bringing these approaches together, the area positions Swift Studies as a developing field that contributes to broader conversations about authorship, narrative, identity, and cultural production in contemporary popular culture and literature more broadly.

While the area emphasizes literary approaches, this is not a limitation. Submissions from all disciplines (sociology, statistics, economics, humanities, music, and so forth!) are welcome.

Some Suggested Topics Might Include:

• The Archive & Taylor's Version

• Corporal Experiences of Lyrics and Swift 

• Gender and Sexuality 

• Fan Communities & Digital Culture

• Identity and Eras 

• Literary Analysis of Lyric