Taylor Swift Speaker Series to begin at KU this week

LAWRENCE (KSNT) - The international sensation has made her way over to the University of Kansas for class lectures and as guest speaker topics.

KU has partnered with the Institute for Policy and Social Research, Department of English and many more to bring the Taylor Swift Speaker Series to the students and public for free.

This series will cover everything from the media stereotypes among the sports ecosystem, to "SWIFTYnomics", to how she write such strong songs. As well as, teaching and educating the community about the variety of pop culture and how academia demonstrates this.

Steve Bien-Aime, Associate Professor at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications and one of the guest speakers in the series, spoke with 27 News on what they would like the recipients to get out of the lecture series.

"We hope this series kind of models something that people can take away which is, we need to look at events and issues through multiple perspectives and multiple disciplines," Bien-Aime said. "And appreciate that everyone has a lot of great value that they can bring to enhance our knowledge." 

The series will have six speakers, with the keynote speaker flying in from Harvard University. Stephanie Burt, Professor of English, Poet, Essayist and critic wrote an essay in The Atlantic about the importance of Swift.

"We are just so excited to have so many people at KU and people from the wider academic community coming here to KU to share their knowledge with us," Bien-Aime said.

The first lecture of the series will be Wednesday, September 18 at 4:30 p.m. at Stauffer-Flint Hall at the University of Kansas. It will also be available for live streaming.

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