‘The Wire,” HBO’s gritty series about life in Baltimore, is about to become a course at Harvard.

The announcement came at a panel discussion at the school featuring several of the show’s stars, according to the Harvard student newspaper, The Crimson.

The class will be taught by sociology professor William J. Wilson, one of the best-known African American history professors in the country, who has made no secret of the fact that he is a huge fan of the show.

“I do not hesitate to say that it has done more to enhance our understanding of the challenges of urban life and the problems of urban inequality, more than any other media event or scholarly publication,” Wilson told the audience before poking fun at himself, “including studies by social scientitsts.”

The series ran for five seasons, starting in 2002. Each year, it took on a different aspect of urban life — from drugs to schools to the news media.

Harvard will be not the first college course on “The Wire.” Other students commented on The Crimson’s site that courses on the TV show already exist at Duke University and Middlebury College.

Envisagement…

Rebecca Hall from October’s issue of Dazed&Confused