Blog

It's a crazy time to be a Taylor Swift fan + scholar (because, yes, that's a real thing). One of the things that fascinates me the most about pop culture isn't the texts themselves. Don't get me wrong -- I love Taylor's music and Disney movies and the Percy Jackson books. But in addition to the texts, there's also all these conversations around them -- the narratives that get circulated, the perspectives that get amplified, and what those reveal about us, as a society, in an

First Wednesday Words of the year, because bronchitis (or something) has thrown me for a loop. Whatever it is, it's lingering, which has made anything beyond essential "must-do" tasks trifficult to complete. Case-in-point: I have lost all motivation for exercise, so in an effort to stay moving when all I want to do is hibernate, I set myself the task of listening to the entire back-catalog of Switched On Pop . I've listened to a few episodes here and there -- mainly the ones

It's Monday, November 10 -- and, aside from my birthday, it's also: Reputation 's birthday and the day Duke freshmen registered for Spring semester classes. Wierd thing to pair together, I know but hear me out: in my other professional life, I teach a Taylor Swift focused writing course, which I'll be offering in the Spring ( VERY much looking forward to teaching this new album). So as we're wrapping up all things Disney in the Fall, I've got half an eye on the Spring and Ta

I've been a bit quiet lately, mainly because my writing has, unusually, taken me elsewhere. A few weeks ago now, I received an email out of the blue from an editor at Public Humanities . He was inviting me to write an article on Taylor Swift's new album, The Life of a Showgirl . The editor -- who is a professor at Harvard -- pitched the piece as part of an "Of The Moment" roundtable, a space that " offers articles that are short, peer-reviewed, open access, and written for a