Taylor Swift ‘swiftposium’ kicks off in Melbourne: ‘I once got a lot of judgment in my field’

‘How can someone who studies soccer fans tell me I shouldn’t be studying a pop star’s fans?’: RMIT’s Taylor Swift ‘fanposium’ was held a day before the ‘swiftposium’ opened at University of Melbourne. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images

When the title of Dr Georgia Carroll’s thesis was read out at her graduation ceremony, the room laughed. A lot has changed in just a year: her subject was Taylor Swift fans – and she’s the one laughing now.

“A lot of people still automatically think, ‘Oh, Taylor Swift is a silly thing to study,’ but it’s no more niche than studying some tiny scientific aspect of something,” says Carroll, who has loved Swift’s music since she was 14. “I think academia is sometimes a bit scared of the popular. But we need more people studying these really relevant cultural moments.”