Taylor Swift and religion

A University of Findlay professor is making the unlikely connection between religious studies and Taylor Swift. Dr. Darcy Metcalfe, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Findlay, launched a class this year analyzing the connection between Taylor Swift, her fans – better known as "Swifties" – and religious concepts. "(Swift) is very purposeful about making that sense of community, sense of belonging for people," Metcalfe said. "Along those lines, in religious studies, we talk about Émile Durkheim, a French sociologist who talks about religion being a community event, and I think she taps in really well to having people feel a part of something." The class is structured into two parts. First, she explains a religious concept and how it's studied. Then Metcalfe connects the topic to Taylor Swift. Discussions and sharing personal anecdotes are a way she helps students connect these concepts to the pop star. "We have a couple students who are pretty open about their own religious traditions," she said. "I'd say, 'when you go to your religious traditions, worship service, whatever that is, what does it look like?'" Her class compared a list of things that are a part of a worship service to things that are a part of a Taylor Swift concert. "Music, community, high emotion, some kind of message. There were all these similarities," Metcalfe said. "I think music is key in that it taps into a special place within humans." Although the class is centered around Swift, the midterm assignment allows her students to choose another pop culture icon or event – "something that you usually wouldn't characterize as religious," Metcalfe explained – and analyze it through a religious study lens. "It could be a variety of things. It could be something like, 'is the Super Bowl a religious event? Or, 'is the music of Kendrick Lamar religious?'" Metcalfe said. "I had one student do Christian themes and rodeo culture, which I thought was really interesting." The main goal of her class is to get students to view religion and pop culture as two worlds that bleed into each other. "I would say the main purpose is to push against these really strict categories we have on, and within culture about what is religious and what's not," Metcalfe said. "My goal is to encourage students to think about religion more broadly. For the final project, students have to make an argument deciding if Swiftism is a religion or not. "There's really no answer to that," she said. "What they have to do is use the methodologies that we learned in the class to back up their answer to that." Metcalfe doesn't want to stop at Taylor Swift when it comes to analyzing pop culture icons and religious studies. She's particularly interested in Beyonce and her visual album "Lemonade." "(Beyonce), through "Lemonade," demonstrates how there isn't one Christianity or one kind of religious tradition, but there's just like several influences that shape people's religious ideals," Metcalfe said. But she's open to suggestions from her students. "Maybe (a class) on Harry Potter," she added. "Whatever students are really interested in, pop culture wise."