It’s not long now until Taylor Swift arrives in Australia to perform her highly anticipated Eras Tour, with her first show down under on the 16th of February at the MCG.
Amongst the hype of her arrival, RMIT has announced it will be holding a Taylor Swift ‘Fanposium’ in collaboration with the University of Melbourne.
The free event will take place at Melbourne’s Capitol Theatre on February 11th, giving Swifties the chance to hear from leading music and culture experts on the Taylor Swift phenomenon, followed by the first Australian public screening of the 2020 Miss Americana documentary.
The event was created after seeing significant fan interest in the ‘Swiftposium’, a three-day academic conference at the University of Melbourne from the 11th to the 13th of February to discuss Taylor Swift’s worldwide impact.
Panel experts include fan studies and music industry academics, Dr Catherine Strong (RMIT) and Dr Liz Giuffre (UTS), and one of Australia’s most renowned music writers, Cameron Adams, who recently produced the ‘Taylor Swift – Eras’ special on his Behind The Hits podcast.
“Fanposium will kick off a week-long carnival of Taylor Swift events in the lead up to Taylor Swift herself at the Eras tour concerts in Melbourne,” said Professor Lisa Given, Director of RMIT’s Social Change Enabling Impact Platform and one of the event organisers.
“Fanposium will give fans and anyone interested an opportunity to engage in analysis from academics and people in the music industry who can offer a behind-the-scenes look at Swift’s legacy.”
The panel will be hosted by RMIT fan studies expert Kate Pattison, who is one of the only people in the world completing a PhD on Taylor Swift.
Pictured: Kate Pattison
Source: RMIT University / Ant Bragaglia
“This offers a fantastic opportunity for researchers, who often study pop cultural phenomena retrospectively. Right now, there are people studying her from many angles, including the economic impacts of her tour, fan engagement and marketing, advocacy, gender, song writing and more” she said.
“She is such an interesting subject for discussion, and I can’t wait to share those conversations with the Swifties and anyone else who wants to come along to Fanposium.”
You can now get your hands on free tickets to the event here!
Get hyped for her arrival by listening to Taylor Swift Radio below!
