• Gothic Fictions 
• Horror in Literature, Film and Television 
• Facets of the Humorous in Literature and Culture 
• Visual Culture & Cinematic Narratives 
• Critical Theory 
• American Culture Studies, in particular American Transcendentalism 

Dr. Stella Castelli is a lecturer of literature and the assistant to the General Manager at the English Department. She holds a degree in English and American Literature as well as Theory and History of Photography from the University of Zurich. In 2020, she successfully completed her doctoral dissertation titled Death is Served exploring repressions of death and their symptomatic reappearance in contemporary American culture. Her monograph has been published by transcript and is available here: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6569-7/death-is-served/ 

Her current research engages with mediations of the humorous in literature and media with a particular interest in the American sitcom. This project focuses on the cultural, visual and serial production of comedy through different humorous prisms such as the aestheticism of camp, wit, slapstick and spoof. 

Recent & Forthcoming Publications: 

• Book Review: Dean G. Lampros, Preserved: A Cultural History of the Funeral Home in America, Amerikastudien/American Studies, A Quarterly, https://amst.winter-verlag.de/article/amst/2025/3/14/display/html.
• “Horror Chicks and Humorous Flicks: The Subversion of the Traditional Horror Film in the Horror-Comedy Psycho Beach Party”. In: Critical Approaches to the Horror Comedy Film, forthcoming. 
• “In Plain Sight: Secrecy in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo”, forthcoming. 
• “‘It was that smile that maddened Irene’: Ambiguous Antics and the Power of Uncertainty in Nella Larsen’s Passing”. In: SPELL, 2024. 

Recent Talks 

• "Clandestine Catalysts: Twin Peaks as a Tale Enabled by Absent Female Bodies" HitchCon International Hitchcock Conference: Hitchcockian Wizardry: Myth, Magic & the Macabre (online), October 2026.

  HitchCon '26 | Hitchcockian Wizardry: Myth, Magic & the Macabre — MacGuffin Media

• “Digesting the Astheticism of Camp: Eli Roth's Thanksgiving” SAUTE Biennal Conference, University of Berne, June 2025.
• “Notes on Vertigo: Camp Sensibility and Madness” vertigo 67, Trinity College Dublin, August 2025 & HitchCon International Hitchcock Conference (online), October 2025.
• “(De)-Coding the Female Detective: The Scully Effect” Workshop: Women in Crime, ES UZH, 2024. 
• Podium: Who’s Virginia Woolf? Stadtkino Basel, 2024. https://www.stadtkinobasel.ch/archiv/2023/film/podium_whos_virgina_woolf/
• Podium: El Màrtir. Pink Panorama Film Festival, 2024. https://www.pinkpanorama.ch/el-martir/