Taylor Swift: Inside a world-first 'Swiftposium' academic summit

From the moment she slipped the Fearless record into her CD player as a 14-year-old, Georgia Carroll has been fascinated by Taylor Swift.

A decade and a half on, she's now touted as the only person in the world with a PhD on the superstar.

Her assessment? "At the moment, it wouldn't be going too far to say [Swift] is one of the most powerful people in the world."

That's why Dr Carroll is among scores of experts who have descended on Melbourne this week for an international academic symposium attempting to explain just how Swift has become so influential.

The event - the first of its kind - is a curtain raiser to the Eras Tour in Australia, and has attracted more than 400 submissions from dozens of study disciplines and academic institutions around the world - sparking a flurry of excitement and global headlines.

The idea for the 'Swiftposium' was born last July as a half-joking tweet with just a few dozen likes. But when organisers quietly announced the event months later it went internationally viral overnight.

Organisers woke up to coverage on the BBC, in Rolling Stone Magazine, CNN.

"I was like, I've got to email my boss," Dr Eloise Faichney says with a grin. "Our little conference suddenly became this juggernaut."

Fans were also desperate to take part, and on Sunday, hundreds of people - walking ments for rhinestones, cowboy boots and Swift's signature red lip - flocked into Melbourne's iconic Capitol Theatre just to hear lectures about the megastar.

At a sold-out friendship bracelet-making workshop beforehand, 19-year-old Soumil says the event - run by RMIT University - is helping heal the wounds left by the ticketing bloodbath of last year.

"It's fun to still be part of it all," he tells the BBC.

But the organisers are quick to clarify the conference - backed by seven universities across Australia and New Zealand - is not a fan convention.

"Although some of us are fans, it certainly - for us - is about trying to take somebody like her seriously in academia," Dr Emma Whatman says.

"This is not an uncritical celebration."

There's no denying 'Taylor Mania' has swept the world this past year - she was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2023 - and it's unclear when that might fade.

On Monday, the 34-year-old again dominated the headlines with pictures of her and footballer boyfriend Travis Kelce winning at the Super Bowl. Last week she cleaned up at the Grammys, taking home her fourth album of the year accolade.

Even her cats, her publicist and her childhood friends have name recognition and a loyal following.

"[Swift] has somehow become the most godlike superstar on the planet, bigger than I thought was even possible," keynote speaker Brittany Spanos - a Rolling Stone reporter who in 2020 taught the first ever university course on the idol - told the conference.

But Swift has long found herself at the centre of huge cultural moments and debates, ever since shooting to stardom as a teenager.

She has become one of the highest-earning and most-celebrated artists of all time - all while igniting conversations about everything from streaming royalties and music ownership to misogyny and cancel culture.

The summit obviously has a whole dedicated to "Swiftonomics" - a trend coined to explain her mammoth effect on economies, and one which has left world leaders begging her to tour their countries.

But there are also experts detailing how her bops are being used to train young people in R and excited discussion about the way her romance with Kelce is helping girls feel at home in traditionally male-dominated sports fandoms.

There's even a lyrical analysis of her attitudes towards public transport (ironically, as her real-life private jet use has increased, so have songs referencing trains and buses, Harrison Croft says).

And when the audience tired of listening to speeches, they were treated to a duet between a musician-turned-academic and an uncomfortably accurate AI clone of a younger Swift's voice - to contrast how her sound has changed over the past 17 years.

For the literature fans, the conference had a mother-daughter duo read spoken-word poetry about the contempt society shows for the interests of young women - an item which drew an adoring reaction from the crowd. And for the politics nerds, an academic presenting on how Australian MPs use Swift to seem relatable.

Madeline Pentland, 27, found more than 30 speeches citing her most iconic lyrics - including a shameless performance by the treasurer of New South Wales, who racked up 20 references in a single speech.

Men were more likely to quote the singer, she discovered, but they tended to use the lyrics in political attack or mockery, whereas women were far more likely to use them to topics of debate.

But Ms Pentland was most amused to find them wielded during one of Australian politics' favourite past times - the disposing of leaders.

She laments, though, what she thinks are some missed opportunities: "I would have thought that there would be a bit of Bad Blood here and there, but I didn't find any references!"

Another duo has explored how Swift has become such a magnet for conspiracy - from "delulu" fans reading into her strategic hints to right-wing characters reading into almost anything.

In the past few days alone, US President Joe Biden has joked off conjecture that Swift's love life is part of a plot to rig the Super Bowl and help get him get re-elected, while her fans were convincing anyone with an internet connection that the re-record of the Reputation album was imminent.

Clare Southerton is interested in what all that can teach us about growing conspiracy communities.

"There's a world of difference between being like, 'Oh, look, the blue dress means 1989 is next'… and being a domestic terrorist, but it's helpful for us to understand, why do people enjoy this":[]}