“Bart Sells His Soul”: Using The Simpsons to Teach Social Construction and the Sociology of Religion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21827766Keywords:
active learning, popular culture, scholarship of teaching and learning, social construction, sociology of religionAbstract
This paper presents a pedagogical intervention for teaching the sociology of religion using "Bart Sells His Soul" (The Simpsons, Season 7, Episode 4) as an entry point for abstract concepts. Drawing on Bernstein's pedagogic device, I argue the activity functions as recontextualization, relocating esoteric discourse—Durkheim's sacred/profane distinction, the Thomas Theorem, and the three major paradigms—into the low-stakes world of popular culture. The episode's treatment of an intangible soul as having tangible effects makes social construction visible. Across two institutional contexts, I have refined the activity with pre-viewing questions, guided debriefing, and small-group work. The activity succeeds through pedagogical displacement: locating sacred concepts within a fictional text allows students to exercise their sociological imagination without defensiveness. I offer a reflective analysis of challenges—student quietness, cultural gaps, and institutional context—and strategies to address them, demonstrating how popular culture bridges students' knowledge and sociological analysis.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Leilani Mascio
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