In the framework of 'Swiftposium 2024', School of History's HDR student Madeline Pentland presented a paper on the gendered use of Taylor Swift lyrics in Australian parliamentary speech between 2015 and 2023. She delivered her paper, co-authored by Frank Bongiorno 'If I was a man, then I’d be the man’: a gendered analysis of Taylor Swift lyrics in Australian parliamentary speech to an appreciative crowd of scholars.

The event coincided with the Australian leg of Taylor Swift's Eras tour and was a bonafide hit.

An impressive lineup of national and international media outlets interviewed her:

• BBC
• Canberra Times
• Canberra Daily
• 106.3 Amplify Newsroom and Tatjana on 2CC radio.

The Swiftposium, an academic conference on the impact of Taylor Swift, was held from Sunday 11 February - Tuesday 13 February 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. The event was hosted by the School of Culture and Communication at the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne. Its goal was to engage in critical dialogue about Swift’s popularity and its profound implications for a range of issues including gender, popular culture, the music industry, and more. Swiftposium was co-organised by scholars from six universities across Australia and New Zealand.