Culture
20 Jul 22

Texas university to teach new Harry Styles course

Harry Styles by Anthony Pham.

The course will focus on Styles' work in music, film, and public activism, as well as the film, literature, philosophy, music the English singer has acknowledged as influential.

Texas State University Honours College in San Marcos has announced it will be offering a course based on the work of Harry Styles from 2023.

Titled Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet, and European Pop Culture, the course will be on offer in the college from next Spring.

The course is focusing on the pop star's work, both in music and film, in order to "understand the cultural and political development of the modern celebrity."

Queer identifying historian, Dr Louie Dean Valencia, announced the news, citing this course as the first of its kind.

It's official, official. I'm teaching the world's first ever university course on the work of #HarryStyles is happening Spring 2023 at @TXST University (see description).

This is what tenure looks like. Let's gooooo! 😊 pic.twitter.com/1z3vMZoxRV

— Louie Dean Valencia (@BurntCitrus) July 16, 2022

Dr Valencia took to Twitter, writing: "It's official, official. I'm the world's first ever university course on the work of #HarryStyles.

"It's happening Spring 2023 at @TXST University. This is what tenure looks like. Let's gooooo!"

Valencia's announcement led to much Harry Styles' fan excitement, however, some fans were also concerned about the course. One fan asked Valencia if he had asked Styles if he is okay with the course being taught around his private life. The lecturer eased the fan's worries, replying: "We will not focus on his private life, only his art and public activism and the film, literature, philosophy, music he has acknowledged as influential. Just in the way we study the work of Shakespeare, Toni Morrison, Virginia Woolf or any great artist."

The lecturer also shared the course description, which reads: "This course focuses on British musician Harry Styles and popular European culture to understand the cultural and political development of the modern celebrity as related to questions of gender and sexuality, race, class, nation and globalism, media, fashion, fan culture, internet culture, and consumerism."

Dr Louie Dean Valencia made a TikTok to better explain the course, which you can view below.

@burntcitrus I’m that professor who will be teaching a class on Harry Styles at #TXST University in Spring 2023! Follow for moslty Harry related content, the class, books, and coffee. #harrystyles #loveontour2022 #1D #harry #texas #hslot #hslot2022 ♬ Watermelon Sugar - Instrumental - i-genius