About

The Department of Alchemy is dedicated to providing critical reactions and feedback to the field of popular culture and media.

The department’s blog consists of a compilation of analytical essays and articles concerning Japanese animation, manga, and fan culture, in addition to Internet culture, Web theory, American popular culture, and comparative media studies.

The original Department of Alchemy that inspired this website is located on the MIT campus.

The Author

Alex Leavitt founded, writes for, and edits the Department of Alchemy. He grew up on the prairie lands of Saturday morning cartoons, subtitled Japanese animation, and Nintendo console video games. Alex is a media scholar and a researcher of popular culture, Web theory, and general geekery.

Currently, Alex is a Research Associate at the Convergence Culture Consortium in the Comparative Media Studies department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2009, Alex graduated from Boston University with a degree in English Language/Literature and Japanese Language/Literature. His resumé and curriculum vitae can be viewed at his personal website. Alex also studied abroad in Kyoto, Japan in 2008 through the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies.

  • Department of Alchemy


    Connecting the dots between popular media and social culture.

    伏見いなり、京都

    The Department of Alchemy approaches American, Japanese, and international digital culture from a critical, analytical (and sometimes quite academic) perspective.
    The blog provides commentary, news, essays, reviews, reports, presentations, audio/video, and general thoughts for a mainstream audience, with intended respect to the context of the works and the broader society that encompasses them.

  • Events



    See me speak at Ignite Boston 7 at Microsoft NERD in Boston, MA, on 4 March 2010.


    See me speak at Penny Arcade Expo East in Boston, MA, from March 26th - 28th, 2010.


    See me speak at the Popular Culture Association National Conference in St. Louis, MI, from March 31st - April 3rd, 2010.


    See me speak at Anime Boston in Boston, MA, from April 2nd - 4th, 2010.


    Meet me at ROFLcon II in Boston, MA, from April 30th - May 1st, 2010.


    Meet me at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, CA, from July 1st - 4th, 2010.


    Meet me at Otakon in Baltimore, MD, from July 30th - August 1st, 2010.

  • Archives