Students in Texas will soon be able to take a course on pop icon Harry Styles.
As of the spring 2023 semester, Texas State University will be offering "Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity," according to the course professor, who announced the news Saturday on social media.
"It's official, official. I'm teaching the world's first ever university course on the work of #HarryStyles is happening Spring 2023 at @TXST University," tweeted associate professor of digital history Louie Dean Valencia.
Classes will focus on Styles as well as popular European culture to "understand the cultural and political development of the modern celebrity as related to questions of gender and sexuality, race, class, national and globalism, media, fashion, fan culture, Internet culture and consumerism," according to a description of the course.
KXAN reported assignments for the class will include studying Styles' music, films, and readings from Murakami, Bethan Roberts, Susan Sontag, Charles Bukowski, Rumi, Alain de Botton, Richard Brautigan, and more. Part of the course requires students to also create their own podcasts.
Speaking with the outlet, Valencia said he is a "huge fan" of Styles, who he first started listening to while the singer was still performing with One Direction. He has since visited Styles' hometown, his fashion exhibition, and attended a performance from his "Love on Tour."
"As an historian, I want the class to get to really see how the world has changed in the last 12 years or so, but also how to put that into historical context, through the lens of Harry Styles, and how they can learn from him and his art, activism, and philosophy, like any great artist," Valencia said.
Styles is not the only pop star to have a university course dedicated to him. Earlier this year New York University's Clive Davis Institute announced a course focused on Taylor Swift and her career for its spring 2022 semester. Rolling Stone journalist and NYU alumna Brittany Spanos taught the course, which analyzed Swift's evolution as a musician, businesswoman, entrepreneur, country singer, and pop sensation, according to Variety.
"I've been covering Taylor Swift since I began my writing career a decade ago and have been a superfan of hers for even longer," Spanos told Variety. "It's such an honor to be able to share my Swiftie expertise with a sharp group of students."
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Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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