Harry Styles fans, assemble!
Texas State University is planning to offer a course on the pop superstar next spring.
Associate professor of digital history Louie Dean Valencia announced the course, titled “Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet, and European Pop Culture,” on Twitter over the weekend.
According to Valencia’s announcement, the class will focus on Harry and European pop 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”.
The coursework will count towards studies in European or world history, international studies, pop culture, diversity and women’s and gender studies.
Although honours uni students will get first dibs on the course, it will also be open to non-honours students.
“The way I like to describe the class is that it’s really about the history of the last 12 years or so. So, it is about Harry Styles in the same way that some classes are about the Beatles and you might take a class like that to learn about, ‘What were the ‘60s like?’” Valencia said in an interview with KXAN.
“This class will give you an idea of questions around globalism, issues around gender, sexuality, race, and really trying to kind of peel apart how did we become a part of the world that we’re living in today?”
Unsurprisingly, Valencia said he’s a “huge fan” himself, and started listening to Harry during his One Direction days
This summer, he visited the star’s hometown in England, his fashion exhibit and saw one of his recent Love On Tour shows.
“As an historian, I want the class to get to really see how the world has changed in the last 12 years or so, but also how to put that into historical context, through the lens of Harry Styles, and how they can learn from him and his art, activism and philosophy, like any great artist,” Valencia told KXAN.
