Lady Gaga performs at Rockefeller Center in New York City on July 9, 2010, during a taping of NBC's Today show. The pop star will be the subject of a sociology course at the University of South Carolina next year. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Pop superstar Lady Gaga is headed back to class this spring — as the subject of a university course.

University of South Carolina professor Mathieu Deflem will teach a course entitled Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame this spring, according to USC student news website Dailygamecock.com.

The course description says the objective of the class is "to unravel some of the sociologically relevant dimensions of the fame of Lady Gaga … with special attention for the role of: business and marketing strategies; the role of the old and new media; fans and live concerts; gay culture; religious and political themes; sex and sexuality; and the cities of New York and Hollywood."

By the end of the course, students should have "garnered empirical knowledge of some of the most important social dimensions of fame as exemplified by the case of Lady Gaga."

Course readings include books The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock and Lady Gaga: Looking for Fame. The Life of a Pop Princess, as well as essays such as The Web of Celebrity and Art, Culture and New York City.

"It's not the person, and it's not the music; it's more this thing out there in society that has 10 million followers on Facebook and six million on Twitter," said Deflem, who also researches crime control, counter-terrorism and internet technology. "I mean, that's a social phenomenon. It's a global social phenomenon.

Only 50 students can enroll in the course for the spring and summer semesters, but Deflem plans to open it up to 120 students for the Fall 2011 semester.

Deflem is a huge Lady Gaga fan himself. He has seen the singer perform 29 times and owns hundreds of copies of her albums. Deflem hopes his students will be Lady Gaga fans.

"They don't have to be hardcore fans," he said. "The better fan will not necessarily be the better student. But you have to have some interest in the topic. So, if you really don't like her, you probably shouldn't take the course. But you don't have to be an expert."