Literary and Cultural Studies

Recent Graduates

Some 2004 grads (L-R): Elizabeth Cochran, Kevin Heraldo, Matt Babcock, John Francis, Natasha Ngaiza



It is often asked exactly what an LCST major can do, especially given the nature of interdisciplinary work, which sometimes can make you a modern-day "jack of all trades, but master of none." It's certainly not a narrowly vocational program, not least because we try not to put limits on what you can and can't study. For those reasons, students in graduate programs sometimes report starting out at a disadvantage ("I never did get that straight-up French history course that everyone else has as an undergraduate," as a grad student in the French department at Penn State put it). But an LCST degree also opens up other possibilities for work and study that might not have presented themselves to other majors, in part because you are encouraged to think synthetically and across the traditional disciplines. Thus, our alumni comment that an interdisciplinary degree has better prepared them to think critically, approach problems from a series of different perspectives, to teach in a variety of fields, write in different rhetorical modes, and make cocktail party conversation.

Below, you'll find an updated list of what some of our grads are currently doing. (Many also report that they take some time to decide what they want, or delay applying to graduate programs for a year or two). Besides those listed here, LCST alumni are (or have been) in graduate school at places like the University of Chicago, NYU, Rutgers, Berkeley, George Washington, Maryland, and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; as a reflection of the diverse interests that the program encourages, those students have specialized in comparative literature, creative writing, rhetoric, anthropology, information studies, museum education, and English.


Where are they now? Some recent LCST graduates . . .

Monalisa Arias (2002 graduate -- program in Women and Performance) has spent a year and a half working for the second largest children's theatre company in the U.S, Theatre IV. She ha also worked for Theatre Virginia and at Theatre at Lime Kiln, a professional equity house, where she was an actress, musician, and fight choreographer for their productions of Stonewall Country and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her work on The Runways (directed by Kevin Stockwell and performed in St. Mark´s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC) received a WATCH nomination for Outstanding Stage Combat Choreography. She is now planning to move to the D.C. area and work in a larger theatre community.

Ian Atkins (2001 graduate - film program) is now a videographer for a small video production company in Charlottesville called "Cavalier Videography," working with Sony HD digital cameras and filming everything from training videos to weddings. He is also now a member of the CLVS (certified legal video specialist) and films a lot of court-related events that, although boring, pay well. He won first prize with a short film at the 2004 VA Film Festival, and is currently a script supervisor for "Cavalier Films" (Station Agent, Charlie's Party), and fine-tuning his latest screenplay "Lyric Farm" in anticaption of future production.

Maria P. Blanco (1999 grad - program in French and English modern literature) is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at NYU. She has taught a seminar titled "Allegories of the City: Global Mappings of the Urban Landscape in Literature and Film," reflecting her interests in urban chronicles, and the emergence of ghost narratives in stories of modernity and modernization.

Eliza Bourque (1997 grad - program in Latin American and French studies) founded a web and print design firm with her sister, and is applying to study international relations at Yale or Johns Hopkins, with an emphasis on Franco-north African relations.

Stacey Busbee (2004 grad -- film program) works at a small Montessori School in Chicago,as the Development Liaison working on fundraising projects, grant writing and doing event planning for school events. She plans on going back to school part-time in the Spring, probably in the Liberal Studies program at Northwestern.

Kimberly Bylander (1999 grad - program in Africa and its Diaspora) is currently working as a health educator for the New York City Department of Health on a program addressing cardiovascular disease and neighborhood health disparities in Brooklyn. 

Mary Beth Canty (2003 grad -- program in Human Behavior and Performance) is at the University of Arizona law school, focusing on Copyright Law and the recording industry, and prepares for arguments before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. At the same time, she is interested in acting, was asked to be a PA on a Stephen King mini-series, and has a couple of film projects in the works.

Elizabeth Cochran (2004 grad -- film program) completed her MA in applied science at James Cook University in Townesville, Australia, and is now waiting to hear about medical scholl graduate programs. Her thesis was on mangrove swimming ants and their foraging patterns over land and water, but it turns out that they really don't like swimming. She got top scores on the medical school entrance exam, although it helped that it included a passage to interpret on Eisenstein and different philosophies of film editing!

Elissa Cohn (2005 grad -- film program) is currently script supervisor on an independent feature film, "The Book of Caleb," that's being shot by graduates of the FSU film school. She's keeping a journal of the experience at Livejournal -- the link is http://www.livejournal.com/users/theladysrevenge/.

Clarence Coo (1998 grad -- program in Performance Studies) is an ESL teacher /grantwriter at the Brooklyn Chinese American Association in Brooklyn, NY. He is concurrently pursuing a playwriting career.

Nora Corrigan (1998 grad - program in Comparative Medieval Studies) is a PhD candidate in English/Renaissance Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. She plans to defend her dissertation, "English Commoners and Communities on the Early Modern Stage" this year. 

Georgia Dodson (2004 grad -- film program) moved to NYC and began perfecting her cappuccino, interning at Mute Records, and studying the art of improvisation with Armando Diaz. In the past months, she has gone fanny packing in Central Park, portrayed a zombie in a low budget music video, spotted Harvey Keitel on the street and kicked herself later for not complimenting him on his role as the organ grinder in "Monkey Trouble," served dinner to David Lee Roth, partied with Swedish rock stars at the Chelsea Hotel on her 22nd birthday, and had her copy of "The Innocents" signed by Andy Bell of Erasure. Georgia, tired of waiting tables and sick of the rapidly dying music industry, now works with fellow William and Mary graduate, Sonejuhi Sinha, at a post production house in Manhattan. She will buy a new pair of shoes with her first paycheck.

Alex Drohobyczer (2000 grad --film program) is a director of marketing and operations at an OB/GYN office in Las Vegas, and applying to MBA programs for Fall '05.

Rachel Geer (2003 grad -- program in Visual and Verbal Poetics) spent a year working in a law office learning the fine art of shuffling papers and avoiding frazzled clientele.  On the side, she was also volunteering at the Nashville Adult Literacy Council, working with ESL students and figuring out that what she really wants to do is teach.  So last year she was in the south of France working in a highschool as an English teaching assistant, getting schooled in how to teach by the seat of your pants and French adolescent slang.  She's now applying to French grad school programs, especially ones where she can revist some of the cultural theorists from the theory class. 

Julie Griffiths (now Maxfield. 2001 grad - program in Ethical Forces in Society) worked for two years with AmericCorps at an alternative high school near Portland, OR as a special education instruction aide, eventually getting a staff position. She now work for Reed College in Portland, as the Administrative Assistant in the Career Services office.

Kevin Heraldo (2004 grad -- film program) has started a digital media company, "Monarch Productions," in Richmond. Their 75-minute DVD "Meadowbrook Football Highlight Film," about a high school team's road to winning a state championship, premiered in March at the school and is selling well. He also teaches film and media technology at Colonial Heights High School. 

Esther James (1999 grad -- program in Irish Studies) worked for several organizations dedicated to furthering sustainable agriculture, including working with immigrant farmers and on DC-area organic vegetable farms. She is now with American Farmland Trust in Washington DC as manager of foundation support.

Kerri Johnson (2001 grad - film program) is a freelance associate producer in television. She mainly works for ESPN and ABC Sports, but has also worked with NBC on the Summer Olympics and with ABC/ESPN on the World Cup. She won an Emmy last year for Best Sports Documentary for a program on double dutch. In her spare time, she has also worked on some commercials, the Tribeca Film Festival, and did a little bit of work on the Martin Scorsese documentary on the blues.

Betsy Korona (2003 grad - program in Media and Society) moved from Washington, DC to Los Angeles. She is currently producing day of air news for Channel 1 News, a national TV network that is satellite fed into over 40% of middle and high schools across the country every school day.

Laura Kwerel (2003 grad—film program) is an intern at WBUR, Boston's public radio station, and an occasional producer of short radio documentaries for indiefeed.com.  She will be attending Northwestern's school of journalism in the fall.   This October she organized the 2005 Mid-Atlantic Film Festival in Northern VA, which was attended by exactly 100 people, not including her parents.  She recently discovered that there is something unmistakeably cinematic about good radio.

Eve Lathrop (2003 grad -- film minor) is working on her M.A. in film studies at Emory.

April Lo (2003 -- film track) is working in development for a small independent  film production company in Manhattan called Elevation Filmworks.  The company has made several films including "The Ballad Of Jack and Rose," starring Catherine Keener and Daniel Day Lewis, and "Sherrybaby" with Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Theresa Marier (now Weiler. 2001 graduate - program in Theater Pedagogy) is a member of the faculty at Detroit Country Day School in Beverly Hills, Michigan, where she teaches Speech and Drama at the Middle School. In her free time, she "moonlights" as a children's bookseller, and performs occasionally in community theatre and local independent films.

Guy Martin (2001 -- film track) is currently working as an office assistant on "Spider-Man 3" at Columbia Pictures.  He was an office PA on The Benchwarmers for Revolution Studios and on Bewitched for Columbia, and has also worked as a script reader, intern, and a set PA.

Kyle Meikle (2006 -- minor in LCST) recently enrolled in an MSc programme in Writing and Cultural Politics at the University of Edinburgh.

Carter Millican (2001 grad - program in Marketing and American Society) worked as a marketing assistant with the National Geographic Society while taking courses in graphic design. He is now attending Yale University, pursuing an MFA in Graphic Design in the School of Art.

Julie Powers (2004 grad -- film program) is a legal research assistant with NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Elise Reuschenberg (2001 grad - program in Community and Communication in U.S. Society) was a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinee, W. Africa, and also worked t the National Peace Corps Association in D.C. She is now headed to grad school for a master's degree in social work.

Brian Richards (2000 grad - program in World Religions and Literature) received an MA in the Humanities from the University of Chicago, and is now an assistant editor at an academic book publisher. He lives in D.C.

Wilson Rickerson (1999 grad - film program) recently completed a Masters in Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware and drafted Delaware's renewable portfolio standard law. Wilson currently works at the Center for Sustainable Energy in the Bronx where he focuses on solar energy and wind energy markets. While his film-related street cred is evaporating, he enjoys being an energy nerd and will be presenting research in Oxford this spring. Wilson will chase his wife, Elizabeth, to Boston in June 2006.

Anna Schatz (2004 grad -- program in Shaping Ethnic/National Identities in US and Asia) taught 5th grade in Agat, Guam for two years, and is now in Cirebon, Java (Indonesia) where she teaches at a private primary school for Cirebonese students.  Her real mission is to get involved in puppetry and gamelan, which have strong roots in the town.

Amanda Shoaf (2000 grad - program in French and Francophone Studies) completed her M.A. in French at Penn State in 2002. After teaching English in Lyon for a year, she is back at Penn State for a PhD in French Civilization, working on a dissertation called (tentatively) "Parisian Landscapes: Public Parks and the Design of Urban Experience, 1977-2001." She hopes to return to France for the 2006-07 school year.

Yancey Strickler (2000 grad -- program in Hegemony and American Popular Culture) is a freelance writer in NYC, writing primarily about misic, but also film, for Entertainment Weekly, Village Voice, Blender, Spin, New York Magazine, and others. He is also managing editor of eMusic.com.

Lena Suk (2004 grad -- film program) is in Emory's M.A. program in Film Studies.

Adriana X. Tatum (1998 grad - program in "literatures-errant," on 20th-century Latin American lit.) is a PhD. candidate in Comparative Literature at Princeton, where she focuses on language and translation politics in early 20th-century Hebrew and Latin American poetry.

Dan Winckler (2001 grad - program in performance studies) is completing an MS in Integrated Digital Media at Brooklyn Polytechnic, developing tools and techniques for improv theater that incorporates telepresence and live visuals (VJ-ing).  He still performs with the improv group Gunshow and has also worked with the ground-breaking video improv groups Neutrino and Improv Everywhere.

Aeri Wittenbourgh (2003 grad - film program) is currently living in New York City, working as a Photo Editor in the Current Events department at Corbis.

** Many of these recent grads have agreed to be contacted by current and former students interested in similar fields or work experience. For details, contact Simon Joyce at .

Lisa Grimes wants you to know that LCST grads looking for a little easy money (!) should keep in mind that the Roy R. Charles Center administers the William and Mary nomination process for a number of national scholarship competitions. The Center also provides resources for applicants. Alumni who are eligible and interested in applying for such awards (such as Fulbright and Luce Scholarships) may wish to do so through the Center. If you are interested, information is available by clicking on the Scholarships link on the Charles Center's website. If you have questions, email Lisa Grimes at or call 757-221-2460.