{"id":10019,"date":"2024-02-05T22:42:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T22:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/?p=10019"},"modified":"2024-02-05T22:43:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T22:43:08","slug":"tamuk-strikes-a-chord-with-swifties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/05\/tamuk-strikes-a-chord-with-swifties\/","title":{"rendered":"TAMUK strikes a chord with Swifties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
From love stories to life lessons<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

As the lyrics of Taylor Swift\u2019s song, \u201cReady for It,\u201d filled the walls of Manning Hall, Room 220 students waited anxiously for their class to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an attempt to encourage students to enroll in more sociology courses, Department Chair Dr. Timothy Oblad took it upon himself to brainstorm an approach to structure a modern, yet fun course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oblad knew TAMUK had the ability to offer students a refreshing class and took inspiration from Ivy League Universities and other campuses such as Washington State University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTaylor Swift has just cracked the NFL and has brought a great flow of new people, new interests and new eyes\u2026the internet loves it. I thought it was a weird thing happening social media wise; you can see the impact,\u201d Oblad said. \u201cSo, I asked myself why wouldn\u2019t we study that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After pitching the idea, Melissa Diaz, lecturer of psychology and sociology, excitedly raised her hand to volunteer to teach \u201cSwifties and Pop Influence.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a huge Taylor Swift fan and have been for a very long time I\u2019ve been to every concert of hers with my daughter,\u201d Diaz said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The course quickly drew in attention from students of all majors and grasped the interest of men as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz decided it was \u201ctime to teach some lessons\u201d and started crafting her syllabus for Sociology 4308, a special topics course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to go through all of her albums, but I also needed to incorporate pop culture. I decided to cover more of her as an individual than just an artist,\u201d Diaz added. \u201cTaylor Swift is an activist, so we are diving into her lawsuits with the sexual harassment lawsuit, the re-recorded albums, how she stands up for all artists fighting for the right to their own music while also tying all of this back to psychology.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Taylor Swift\u2019s level of fame, many students who enrolled were unaware of the impact she has had on pop culture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI knew from the NFL that Taylor Swift existed, but I didn\u2019t know how famous she actually was and never dug deep into her as an artist,\u201d student Joseph Maldonado said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maldonado said he is a junior high coach and plans to apply the knowledge and perspectives he gains from the course with his athletes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diaz also said she plans to focus on the psychological effects music can have on individuals, focusing on how every person interprets heartbreak and happy moments differently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the spring semester has started the department has received a large amount of interest and positive feedback from students enjoying the course, such as Jordan Puckett.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to be in this class simply because of how much Taylor Swift has been on people\u2019s minds, the internet and overall pop culture. [Melissa Diaz] has such a vibrant energy. That\u2019s rare to find in professors, because you can tell that they love what they do,\u201d Puckett said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From love stories to life lessons As the lyrics of Taylor Swift\u2019s song, \u201cReady for It,\u201d filled the walls of Manning Hall, Room 220 students… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":10020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[153],"class_list":["post-10019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"authors":[{"term_id":153,"user_id":114,"is_guest":0,"slug":"briana-beltran","display_name":"Briana Beltran","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/48b698f6962fce921ec241ca13987a29.jpg?ver=1778634895","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10022,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10019\/revisions\/10022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10019"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=10019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}