Kevin Goerl

My LAH class in the spring of 2024 shaped my academic journey because of how discussions went in class. Dr. Scala made the class so engaging each and every day. When I came to UT I never imagined I would be spending hours writing about and analyzing Taylor Swift's lyrics. We even went beyond the analysis and made comparisons to Shakespeare and Daphne du Maurier among others. After returning from this small class back to a class with my whole cohort this year, I feel that the analytical side of my brain has developed so much. My best friend in LAH, Robert Rash, even said he was jealous that he had not taken the Swift Songbook class with me.

Dr. Scala would have us look at specific words, how their meaning has changed over time, and compare connotations across time. We had to rely heavily on the Oxford English Dictionary in class because of all the different meanings we had to look up and interpret. My favorite song we looked at was "Lover", and when going over it we spent hours in and out of class going over each line. One time in the class, we even had a Japanese camera crew come in and film our discussion too. The class helped me become much more detail oriented, which I know will help me in any future endeavor.

The class was just so enjoyable because I enjoyed writing about songs that my friends and I listen to so often and have in our playlists. It felt like such a unique experience to be able to take a closer look at her songs. We explored the song writing process too. We explored Swift’s connection to Rebecca Harkness through her home in Rhode Island, which Harkness formerly owned. So many write off Swift’s music as just more pop songs, but after this class I now understand what it means to create these lyrics and have them listened to on such a broad scale.