University of Calgary students can study Taylor Swift this semester | Daily Hive

Who needs calculus when you can study Taylor Swift? University of Calgary students can spend this semester diving into pop culture topics across a handful of courses.

The institution, which was named among the world’s top universities for 2027, has a handful of courses this semester that take a look at some pretty familiar pop culture topics, from celebrity culture and horror films to video games and Japanese pop culture.

One of the courses is Celebrity Culture, where students will take a look at how fame has changed over the years, from Hollywood’s Golden Age to today’s influencer culture.

The course will also explore how AI is changing the way fans interact with celebrities, with students looking at examples including Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, and K-pop idols. Instead of traditional exams, students in this course will get to show what they’ve learned through video essays, podcasts, and TikTok series.

There’s also the Horror Film course, which will have students looking at different types of horror movies, including slashers, techno-horror, and found footage, while exploring the fears and anxieties reflected in the genre.

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Another course is Video Games and Bildungsroman, which will look at the classic coming-of-age story through video games, with a focus on horror-inspired exploration games and 2D platformers.

Students can also take Science of Natural Disasters in Popular Culture, which explores how natural disasters are portrayed in the media and how those portrayals can affect the way people understand and respond to them.

For anyone interested in anime and manga, Introduction to Japanese Popular Culture will explore major forms of Japanese pop culture from the 20th and 21st centuries, including manga, anime, literature, movies, and video games.

Would you take any pop culture classes at the University of Calgary? Let us know in the comments below.