Skip to content
Public Seminar
Public Seminar
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Sections
    • The Arts
    • Economy
    • Education
    • Habitats
    • History
    • Migration
    • Philosophy
    • Politics
    • Race
    • Sex & Gender
    • Science & Technology
  • Podcasts
    • Unsettled
    • The Ostriches
    • Multi-Verse
    • Past Present
    • Exiles on 12th Street
    • Why Now?
    • Unproductive Labor
  • About
    • About
    • Submissions
    • Our Team
    • Donate
    • Issues Archive
  • Symposia
    • Rethinking Orozco
    • The Anti-Immigrant Election
    • The Mysteries of Taylor Swift
    • Rats: A Cautionary Tail
    • Teaching While Black
    • Authority and Freedom: A Defense of the Arts
    • Constitutional Politics
    • Symposium on Love
    • The Left and the Crisis of Democracy

The Mysteries of Taylor Swift

Public Seminar has gone down the Taylor Swift rabbit hole. There are serious Swifties in the philosophy department at the New School for Social Research—and some serious dissidents, as James Miller discovers in a conversation with Jack Condie, Simon Critchley, and Gwenda-lin Grewal. The reason we can’t just be normal about Swift, Condie posits, is because she’s a modern-day Alcibiades. Claire Potter, meanwhile, argues that it’s the queerness of fandom, not the artist, that matters. And Rick Moody riffs on how a massive musical entity might prove her personhood.

Music

Taylor Swift: The Modest Proposal

Finitude, in 63 parts

February 28, 2024 • by Rick Moody
And so the working hypothesis of this proposal is: that only art with an awareness of finitude constitutes meaningful composition. ...

Read More
Taylor Swift: The Modest Proposal
Music

You Belong to Me

It isn’t Taylor Swift who is queer: it’s us

February 28, 2024 • by Claire Potter
It is the queerness of fandom, not the artist, that helps us understand Taylor Swift better. ...

Read More
You Belong to Me
Music

Taylor Swift, the Modern Alcibiades

We think we know who the pop star is. But does Plato know better?

February 27, 2024 • by Jack Condie
Much ink has been spilled on whether she’s a feminist hero or ruthless capitalist villain. I think she’s a modern day Alcibiades. ...

Read More
Taylor Swift, the Modern Alcibiades
Music

The Mysteries of Taylor Swift

A symposium on a theologico-political phenomenon

February 27, 2024 • by Jack Condie, Simon Critchley, Gwenda-lin Grewal and James Miller
In this Taylor Swift symposium, New School philosophers and critical theorists dissect the mysteries of the pop star....

Read More
The Mysteries of Taylor Swift
Subscribe

Join our global intellectual commons

Free to subscribe. No spam. Delivered by Substack.

Most Popular
1
Greg Abbott’s Wheelchair
June 10, 2025 by Andrew Joseph Pegoda
Greg Abbott’s Wheelchair
2
Driven Mad by a Marxist Daughter
March 25, 2024 by Justin Joque
Driven Mad by a Marxist Daughter
3
Simulacra of Democracy
June 16, 2026 by Elzbieta Matynia
Simulacra of Democracy
4
When the Penis Is Property
June 11, 2020 by Kevin Mumford
When the Penis Is Property
5
The Secret Life of Colonel Sanders
May 4, 2021 by Yvonne M. Vissing
The Secret Life of Colonel Sanders
The Latest
Theory & Practice
The Cultural Marxism Bogeyman
July 27, 2026 by Austin Tannenbaum and A. J. A. Woods
The Cultural Marxism Bogeyman
Literature
The New Millennium
July 21, 2026 by Nancy K. Miller
The New Millennium
Reviews
An Embarrassment of Exactness in Ben Lerner’s Transcription
July 20, 2026 by Elena Rotzokou
An Embarrassment of Exactness in Ben Lerner’s Transcription
Art & Design
Thinking Technology: New Humans at the New Museum
July 15, 2026 by Yazan Ashqar
Thinking Technology: New Humans at the New Museum
Literature
The Queer Tendency of The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam
July 14, 2026 by Lana Lin and Katie Pruden
The Queer Tendency of The Autobiography of H. Lan Thao Lam

The New School

Public Seminar is a journal of ideas and debate published by the Public Seminar Publishing Initiative at The New School. Our free, nonprofit publication is made possible by the support of The New School and the generosity of our readers.

Newsletter

Free to subscribe. No spam.
Delivered by Substack.

Connect With Us

Instagram
Bluesky
Facebook
Twitter

Copyright © 2014–2026 The Editorial Board of Public Seminar, All Rights Reserved.