An English professor will teach a course this fall focused on interpreting singer-songwriter Bob Dylan’s lyrics as literature.

Students in the special topics class English 290 will analyze Dylan’s lyrics, his music and his cultural impact, according to professor Rob Hurd.

“Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature,” Hurd said. “There have been Bob Dylan English classes, you know, going back to the 1970s. So this is by no means, like, a new phenomenon.”

Dylan, a folk and rock singer, is considered to be one of the most successful songwriters in history, reaching the peak of his popularity in the second half of the 20th century.

Dylan isn’t the only singer-songwriter who will be featured in an AACC class this fall. Communications professor Jessica Mattingly will teach a course, Communications 130,  on Taylor Swift.

Hurd, who offered the Dylan class in spring 2023 but did not attract enough students to run it, said classes about music industry icons offer an “exciting new topic for students.”

“A lot of times, you know, we continue to kind of offer the same kinds of literature classes … and those are great,” Hurd said. But “I think it’s important to show [students] that academics … are not just about, like, Shakespeare, right?”

This time, Hurd plans to advertise the course more and offer an information session on the history of Dylan and his music to students who might be interested in enrolling in the class.

Hurd, who is publishing a chapter about Dylan in a Bloomsbury Press book this summer, said academics should “write about pretty much anything” that interests them.

The 15-week class will run Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30-10:45 a.m.