‘Tortured Poets’ and others welcome in UCLA Taylor Swift course

In her cover story as Time magazine's 2023 Person of the Year, Taylor Swift gave a resonant quote about the power of being creative.

"There is one thing I've learned," she said. "My response to anything that happens, good or bad, is to keep making things. Keep making art."

English major Mishal Imaan Syed agreed, creating her own art as well as a new UCLA course, "Taylor Swift's Later Discography as Literature: The Ten-Week Version."

"I created this class because I wanted the opportunity to integrate my interest in English and creative writing with my Taylor Swift love," said Syed, an award-winning poet and aspiring novelist. "And this entire process has taught me more about Taylor and more about life."

The idea came to Syed last year, during a creative writing workshop where each student had to write a list of their poetic influences. Syed's inclusion of Swift surprised the instructor - but sparked a conversation where Syed discovered the Undergraduate Student Initiated Education program.

While not the first to center a university course around Swift - there have been more than a dozen across the country, including Harvard University's "Taylor Swift and Her World" - Syed applied to UCLA's program with her idea and was accepted. After completing two pedagogy seminars, working closely with faculty mentor Christopher Mott, and teaching a few sample lessons to her fellow program participants, Syed revised (and revised and revised) her syllabus and PowerPoint presentations until they sparkled.

And, echoing the response to Swift's famously popular Eras Tour, when Syed launched her 1-credit, pass/fail seminar this quarter, it quickly achieved the UCLA equivalent of selling out arenas and filled up.

"I wanted to take this class for a few reasons. First of all, my last name is ironic in a cool way," said Joshua Swift, a molecular, cell and developmental biology major. "Also, my sister is a big Taylor Swift fan and so this is a way for me to be closer to her while also learning about art and taking a break from my usual STEM classes."

"Mishal is wonderful and it feels really special to be in a class taught by a fellow student. I don't get stressed out about a grade or worried that my opinions could be wrong - every day feels like a fun discussion," said Rayne Bunado, a biology major. "I like that our class is just 20 people, really collaborative, and we're listening to music and really enjoying what we're talking about."

For example, part of the lesson during week three of the course found Syed leading her students through a line-by-line lyrical analysis of two Swift songs: "The Last Great American Dynasty" from 2020's "Folklore" - an affectionate ode to women choosing to live loudly - and "No Body, No Crime" from the same year's "Evermore," a rowdy Southern gothic revenge tale.

The subsequent discussion of the two songs and their themes incorporated references to works as varied as "We the Animals" by UCLA's Justin Torres, "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dalí, as well as explorations of the Appalachian murder ballad tradition, the "girl detective" genre and the creative interpolation of iambic pentameter in pop music. (The tone of the slides throughout reflects diligent research with winking, warm asides sprinkled through, everything from "Shakespeare could never" to "girlboss slay.")

And, perhaps for the first time ever in any college course, the students also discussed how eager they were to get an early start on the homework for next week, literally counting down to the hour they could begin.

The highlight of their assignment? Listening to Swift's brand-new album, "The Tortured Poets Department," which drops Friday, April 19, but will be available on the West Coast around 9 p.m. Thursday.

Ultimately, Syed hopes to pursue graduate studies in English and is grateful for the opportunity to create and teach this course, especially with how it has given her research and teaching experience that will come in handy in the future. But most of all, she appreciates getting to focus so deeply on the craft of writing, a daily practice she - like a certain global superstar - has been devoted to all of her life.

"I love writing fiction, too, but there's something so special about how poetry lets you capture a moment and distill it into images," Syed said. "I really enjoy exploring and understanding how Taylor Swift is a poet who uses rhythm, rhyme and nice turns of phrase to create really pretty lines."