Alexander Sergeant (University of Westminster)
Dr Alexander Sergeant is a Lecturer in Digital Media Production at the University of Westminster. He specializes in the history and theory of fantasy storytelling, with a particular expertise in the Hollywood fantasy genre. Prior to joining Westminster in 2024, he taught at the University of Portsmouth, Bournemouth University, and King’s College London (where he received his PhD in 2017). He is the author of Encountering the Impossible: The Fantastic in Hollywood Fantasy Cinema (SUNY Press, 2021), which seeks to understand the appeal of fantasy storytelling by exploring its psychological and philosophical routes. He has been published in a wide range of peer-reviewed academic journals and edited collections, and is a regular contributor to the online newspaper The Conversation. Regular listeners to the podcast will recognize him for his talent for asking impossible questions, usually in an effort to catch his co-host Christopher Holliday off guard, and his frequent but unnecessary references to The Wizard of Oz (it is his favourite film after all). In between all of this, he is able to occasionally offer some insight into the complex nature of fantasy storytelling. He is the co-founder of Fantasy-Animation.org.
Recent Publications
Hobbits on the wall: The ‘Frodo Lives!’ Campaign as psychosocial symbol, Free Associations 77 (June 2020): 103-118, available here.
Wallace and Gromit and the British Fantasy Tradition in Aardman Animations: Beyond Stop-Motion. Ed. Annabelle Honess Roe (London: Bloomsbury, 2020), 139-152.
Before Walt Disney, there was Lotte Reiniger – the story of the world’s first animated feature, The Conversation (October 2019), available here.
High Fantasy Disney: Recontextualising The Black Cauldron in Discussing Disney. Ed. Amy M. Davis (Bloomington, New Barnet: John Libbey, 2019), 53-72.
Crafted wonder: the puppet’s place within popular special effects reception, The Crafty Animator: Handmade, Craft-based Animation and Cultural Value (Palgrave Animation series). Eds. Caroline Ruddell and Paul Ward (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), 181-202. Available here.
