Meet the vibey students who have all written their uni dissertations on Taylor Swift

It’s finally getting to diss season. This means you’re either the kind of person who has already written three drafts of the thing, drowning in pastel highlighters and have already meticulously planned your vibey diss photoshoot around campus, or you haven’t even decided on your idea yet and you just get scared to open your laptop because every time you do you cry.

And if you’re in the second group of people, you’re probably in need of some inspo, and where else better to get it than Taylor Swift herself? Taylor Swift is literally so important that you can study her on multiple university courses including whole modules dedicated to her. This means that she’s also become a bit of a popular diss topic over the last few years. And last week at Glasgow we got ourselves another dissertation based on Taylor Swift, this time looking at the legal side of all of her re-recordings. Kinda iconic, right? So, let’s have a little look at all the times students have written their uni disses on Taylor Swift, shall we?

Glasgow student Regan wrote her dissertation on the re-recording of Taylor Swift’s songs

Just last week, Glasgow Law student Regan Eve submitted her dissertation all about the re-recording of all of Taylor Swift’s songs. Her diss is titled “You Belong With Me: Copyright Law in the Fight for Ownership of Master Recordings” and explores Taylor’s fight for ownership of her music.

Regan told The Glasgow Tab how a lecturer had suggested the topic to her and as a Swiftie, she believed she had the relevant background knowledge to write the diss. She said: “The lecturer had mentioned how great it would be if someone wrote their dissertation on Taylor’s re-recordings from a legal perspective and as a massive Swiftie I really ran with that idea.”

She added: “It was something I was so passionate about and after delving into the research, I realised smaller artists really don’t have much bargaining power in owning the copyright to their work, so this really propelled me to write a piece advocating for change in how music copyright is allocated through the law.”

Speaking about the writing process she said writing about Taylor Swift “definitely made it more bearable to write” but that she still needed “a million vanilla lattes from Pret” to get through it. She even thanked Taylor Swift in her acknowledgements section, where she wrote: “Of course, acknowledgement is owed to Taylor Swift. Her fearless avocation for an artist’s right to own their work is what inspired me to conduct my research on this topic.” Queen!

York student Liv wrote her master’s thesis on ‘story and character’ in folklore and evermore

In 2022, York student Liv Shaw got a first in her master’s dissertation after writing about Taylor Swift’s albums folklore and evermore. Her diss was titled: “‘Passed Down Like Folk Songs’: An Analysis of Story and Character in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore”. It was a 15,000 word exploitation of the stories and characters on the albums with a chapter on Taylor herself.

Speaking to The York Tab about her iconic diss, she said: “Honestly I’m a big Taylor Swift fan and I really wanted to write my dissertation on something unusual that hadn’t really been done before. I was lucky enough to be referred to someone at York who became my supervisor and he had written a mini essay on the albums himself! I feel like when I listened to the albums I could hear the classic literary devices and thought it would be a goldmine for essay content.”

Her diss went viral and Swifties everywhere were losing their minds. One fan said: “Beautiful! I should not be allowed to award degrees because I would give you a first just based on the title” with another commenting: “HOLY SHIT. PUBLISH BESTIE!!!!! CONGRATS! GO GET THAT BAG!”

Bristol student Evie wrote her diss on Taylor’s treatment in a sexist music industry

Our gal is Taylor is a subject across degrees because Bristol student Evie Chiles wrote her sociology and philosophy dissertation on how Taylor Swift has been treated in a sexist music industry. It is titled” “Look What You Made Her Do: Swift Negotiations with an Inherently Sexist Music Industry, A Case Study of Taylor Swift” and is 32 pages tackling the misogyny Taylor Swift has faced throughout her career. Okay but why have they all got SUCH good titles.

Speaking to The Bristol Tab, Evie said she chose the topic because she “wanted to use my niche knowledge of Taylor to expose a sexist music industry.”

“I was there for the years of character assassination, slut shaming, feuds, the snake fiasco, countless reinventions, she had a sexual assault case, various battles to have control over her career…there’s a lot to unpack”.

Evie admitted that when she told her lecturers of her idea, they were worried her diss would just be “10,000 words of me singing her praises” but once again, Swifties went mad for it with thousands of people calling for her to publish the diss so they could read it.

Stirling student Eve wrote her marketing diss on Taylor Swift

 

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University of Stirling student Eve Graham is another student to have dedicated her dissertation to looking at Taylor Swift. This time, as part of her marketing degree Eve studied how Taylor uses social media platforms to communicate with her fans and build brand loyalty. It was titled: “How do pop music artists in the 21st century use microblogging platforms to communicate with fans, and how does this impact brand loyalty?”

She got 82 per cent on her diss and got a 2:1 in her degree overall. Speaking about the diss, she said: “There’s no way I would do a degree and not have it about Taylor Swift. It focused on how she communicates with fans, something I had so much personal experience of. I met her when I was 17 at the Reputation tour in Manchester. I was so active on social media, she knew my name. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me.” UM, so jealous right now??

Okay but when is the Taylor Swift University opening, please?

Did you write your dissertation on something equally as iconic that you think we should know about? Let us know by emailing [email protected]. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• This Glasgow law student wrote her dissertation on the re-recording of Taylor Swift’s songs

• Meet the York Uni student who wrote her master’s thesis on Taylor Swift

• As she should! Taylor Swift is so important you can study her at these six universities