Topline
Students at a university in Texas will have the chance to study Harry Styles next spring as part of the first-ever college course dedicated to the British pop star.
Harry Styles performs on stage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2022 at the War Memorial Park on May 29, … [+]
Key Facts
“Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet, and European Pop Culture,” will be available for honors students at Texas State University in Spring 2023, assistant professor of digital history Dr. Louie Dean Valencia announced on Twitter.
The class will focus on Styles and how his career intersects with modern celebrity, fan culture, gender and sexuality, culture and consumerism and other subjects, according to a course description posted by Valencia.
The course won’t focus on Styles’ private life, Valencia said, but it will dive into his art and activism as well as the literature, philosophy and music he has acknowledged as influential to his career, along with as his gender-neutral beauty line, Pleasing.
Valencia said students will study Styles “in the way we study the work of Shakespeare, Toni Morrision, Virginia Wolf or any great artist.”
The course will count toward graduation requirements for honors studies, world or European history, international or European studies, popular culture studies and gender and women’s studies.
Key Background
Styles is the latest singer to have an entire college course dedicated to him and his work. Earlier this year, New York University kicked off a class about Taylor Swift taught by Rolling Stone journalist Brittany Spano. Swift spoke at the university’s graduation ceremony in May and received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts. Beyoncé has also been the focus of multiple university courses all over the world, including at the University of Copenhagen, California Polytechnic State University, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Rutgers University. In 2010, the University of South Carolina offered a sociology course centered on Lady Gaga.
Further Reading
Harry Styles’ Hit ‘As It Was’ Tops Billboard Chart For 10th Time—Tying Adele And BTS (Forbes)
Harry Styles Collaborates With Gucci On ‘70s-Inspired Collection (Forbes)
Now You Can Own Harry Styles’ Nail Polish: Singer Launches Gender-Neutral Beauty Line (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/07/19/a-class-on-harry-styles-is-coming-to-this-texas-university/