Sarah Nilsen, associate professor of English and director of UVM's Film and Television Studies program, will appear on the PBS American Experience documentary exploring the life and legacy of Walt Disney. The series premieres Sept. 14 and 15 at 9 p.m.

Nilsen, whose work explores Disney, the popular culture of the Cold War, and cultural diplomacy, will also attend a preview event Sept. 10 at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, where she's been invited to speak as one of three panelists. Joining her on the stage: Don Hahn, Academy Award-nominated producer of the Disney film Beauty and the Beast, and Floyd Norman, animator of films including Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book and Monsters, Inc.

Although it's rare, Nilsen says, for film scholars to study Disney, which is often considered "middle-brow entertainment" not worthy of academic inquiry, her interest began with her dissertation, which, in part, explored Disney's appearance at the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels. Today, Nilsen has two Disney-related books in progress: Where Dreams Begin: A Cultural History of the Disney Princesses and Mouse TV: The History, Economics and Politics of the Disney Channel, a colletion she's editing with UVM colleague Sarah Turner, English lecturer.

Disney is a "cultural flashpoint," Nilsen says, citing reactions that range from nostalgia to hostility. But students, she says, often know very little about the history of Walt Disney, the man, or Disney, the company. "I'm not a fan or a hater," she says, but she wants her students to know about the "massive impact" of Walt Disney and his company historically within the world of animation and film production and across the media and business landscape today.

Watch a clip from the documentary, featuring Nilsen: