Professor Amanda Wunder to Deliver the Annual Phi Alpha Theta Lecture

The Department of History at Seton Hall University is pleased to welcome an acclaimed cultural historian Amanda Wunder, Ph.D., to deliver the 2026 Phi Alpha Theta lecture "Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV."

Professor Wunder's lecture will be preceded by an induction ceremony to welcome new student members into the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society.

Amanda Wunder is a cultural historian of Early Modern Europe with a focus on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she works with sources and methods from history, art history and material culture studies to explore a wide range of topics that includes fashion and textiles, sumptuary legislation, ephemeral architecture, polychrome sculpture, artisan lives and artistic collaborations.

Her most recent book, Spanish Fashion in the Age of Velázquez: A Tailor at the Court of Philip IV (2024), reconstructs the life and work of the royal tailor Mateo Aguado and puts this previously unknown artisan on the map as the most influential dress designer in the seventeenth-century Spanish world. Wunder is currently working on the phenomenon of disillusionment (desengaño) in Spanish art and culture and she is also curating an exhibition on early modern Spanish fashion for the Hispanic Society of America. A member of the History Department at Lehman College, Amanda Wunder is on the faculty in History and Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she also coordinates the program in Global Early Modern Studies.

- This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

- Partial funding has been provided by the College of Arts and Sciences thanks to the generous support of the President's Advisory Council members.

Categories: Arts and Culture