Students at the University of South Carolina (USC) are being given the chance to do a course on Lady Gaga.

The sociology degree, Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame, will focus on the star's rise to fame.

According to the course's website, students will look at the role that business and marketing strategies and new media have played in Lady Gaga's career.

Gay culture, religious and political themes, sex and sexuality, and the cities of New York and Hollywood will also come under the spotlight.

Professor Mathieu Deflem, who will lead the course, told the USC student newspaper, the Daily Gamecock, that the singer's rise was a “social phenomenon”.

Lady Gaga and the Sociology of the Fame is due to begin in January 2011.

(by Jason Gregory)