# Arts & Entertainment ## expand\_more [### John Aboud ](/people/john-aboud)Class of 1995, America Producer and screenwriter **Thesis Title:** “My Wealth in Ivy Island”: The Use of Fantasy and Fable in the Works of P.T. Barnum **What Now:** Screenwriter **What Next:** Further literary and historical pursuits During my thesis research, I learned that Harvard University holds, deep within its... ![John Aboud](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/unnamed.jpeg?itok=VEETRHM6) [### Sophie Barry ](/people/sophie-barry)American Studies, 2020 VP of Development at Tricky Knot **Thesis Title:** “Make America Fit Again”: SUPERMAN #170 and the Rise of Youth Fitness Culture in Cold War America, 1953-1964 **What Now:** VP of Development, Tricky Knot In so many ways, I owe the Hist & Lit department for helping me realize the vast... ![Sophie Barry](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/dsc00826_-_sophie_barry.jpg?itok=lWYLW2Dq) [### Karen Chee ](/people/karen-chee)Class of 2017, American Studies Comedian & Writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers **Thesis Title:** The Ghostly Grotesque: The Revolutionary Satire and Intersectionality of H.T. Tsiang’s *The Hanging on Union Square* **What Now:** Comedian & Writer for *Late Night with Seth Meyers* **What Next:** Would love to get a dog someday I loved concentrating in... ![Karen Chee '17](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/chee_photo_1.jpg?itok=hSTwQsbI) [### Jake Cohen ](/people/jake-cohen)Class of 2009, Modern Europe and America Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center **Thesis Title:** *Tout va mal*: Americanization and the Cinema of Jean-Luc Godard **What Now:** Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center History & Literature was, for me, an invaluable education in teasing out unseen connections. My field—France & America—encourage me to... ![Jake Cohen](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/jake_cohen_headshot.jpeg?itok=c558SPgE) [### Lily Cunningham Perini ](/people/lily-cunningham-perini)Modern World, 2023 Sound Mixer / Sound Designer - Co-owner, Wild Shape Sound **Thesis Title:** "It Was the Wild Wild West Out There": Queer Utopia and The Frontier at Frameline Film Festival in San Francisco, 1977-1996 **What Now:** Sound Mixer / Sound Designer - Co-owner, Wild Shape Sound In addition to my written thesis, I created a 20... ![Lily Cunningham Perini](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/Screenshot%202023-08-18%20at%201.13.26%20PM%20-%20Lily%20Cunningham%20Perini.png?itok=ruoq2Fj_) [### Emily Graff ](/people/emily-graff)Class of 2010, America Editor, Simon & Schuster **Thesis Title:** “Books Like these are Burned!’: The 1933 Nazi Book Burnings in American Historical Memory **What Now:** Editor, Simon & Schuster I started my History & Literature thesis with several questions—about the 1933 Nazi book burnings and the 1943... ![Emily Graff](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/graff.jpg?itok=i_WL5cy-) [### Conan O'Brien ](/people/people/alumni/conan-obrien)Class of 1985, America Host, CONAN **Thesis Title:** Literary Progeria in the Works of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor **Follow Conan:** @ConanOBrien (Twitter) No joke! Before he was a *Simpsons* writer, talk show host, and leader of TeamCoco, Conan O'Brien graduated with a degree in History &... ![screen_shot_2016-08-19_at_1.42.56_pm.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/screen_shot_2016-08-19_at_1.42.56_pm.png?itok=PW9pGT0h) [### Charlotte Pontifell ](/people/charlotte-pontifell)European Studies, 2024 Analyst at The Type Founders **Thesis Title:** Traditional Typography in the Service of Modern Typology: Textual Materialism and the Modernist Print Innovations of the Kelmscott and Hogarth Presses **What Now:** Analyst at The Type Founders I came to Hist & Lit drawn to the ways books, ideas... ![Charlotte Pontifell](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/2025-07/Charlotte%20Pontifell.jpg?itok=5E3RjrVs) [### Tim Reckart ](/people/tim-reckart)Class of 2009, America and Latin America Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Sycamore Studios **Thesis Title:** "Martinka's on Saturday Night": The Society of American Magicians and the Professionalization of Magic **What Now:** Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Sycamore Studios When I started at Harvard, I knew I wanted to work in film eventually... ![screen_shot_2016-12-11_at_9.58.23_pm.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/screen_shot_2016-12-11_at_9.58.23_pm.png?itok=HB3g8g_7) [### Leah Reis-Dennis ](/people/leah-reis-dennis)Class of 2013, America Producer, Poetry in America & Co-Founder, Verse Video Education **Thesis Title:** Lifting up the Lower East Side: Uptown Jewish Women, "Ghetto Girls," and the Effort to Redeem Jewish Female Delinquency in New York, 1900-1924 **What Now:** Producer of *Poetry in America*, Co-Founder of Verse Video Education **What Next:** Producing... ![Leah Reis-Dennis](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/1a42ce71-e590-475e-bb48-78cdae6ec6b2.jpg?itok=TTX8dOQa) [### Ruben Reyes ](/people/ruben-reyes)Class of 2019, Ethnic Studies MFA candidate, Iowa Writers' Workshop **Thesis Title:** "please / no american mierdas:" Shattering Silences, Salvadoran (In)visibilities, and Imagined Nation in Javier Zamora's *Unaccompanied* **What Now:** MFA candidate in Fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and General Education Literature... ![Ruben Reyes](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/screen_shot_2020-01-22_at_8.57.42_am.png?itok=hczcX_M8) [### Panchi Simeto ](/people/panchi-simeto)Class of 2017, American Studies Creative Executive, Orion Pictures **Thesis Title:** Shifting Visions: The Generic and Gender Legacy of the Female Outlaw in Ridley Scott's *Thelma & Louise* **What Now:** Creative Executive, Orion Pictures **What Next:** Hopefully bringing stories of brave women and marginalized voices to more screens... ![Panchi Simeto](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/image1_0.jpeg?itok=0g1mDdDe) [### Emma Winsor Wood ](/people/emma-winsor-wood)Class of 2012, Modern Europe Poet, essayist, and editor **Thesis Title:** Fleeing the Poetic Convent: Elena Shvarts's Works and Days and Problems of Female Authorship in the Late-Soviet Literary Underground **What Now:** I have my MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and I am PhD candidate in Literature at the... ![Emma Winsor Wood](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/histlit/files/img_2904.jpeg?itok=knycdHEy)