Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén

Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is a transdisciplinary scholar working in the intersections of fashion, film, and media with a business lens. She received a doctoral degree in Fashion Studies from Stockholm University, an MA in Cinema Studies from the same institution, and a Licentiate Degree in Public Relations from Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE). She worked as a PR officer in the entertainment and retail industries for over a decade in Argentina and lectured in Art History, Cultural History, and Creative Writing at Universidad Argentina de la Empresa.

In 2014, she discovered Jacques Fonteray’s private archive and collaborated with Fonteray’s family to donate the material and preserve his cultural heritage. Part of this collection is now available for other scholars at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Due to her interest and commitment to promoting archival research, Elizabeth became a founding member and communication director of the Libraries and Archives Scholarly Interest Group at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (Society for Cinema and Media Studies).

Elizabeth's research investigates the many interconnections between Hollywood and the fashion industry from a historical perspective. She is particularly interested in how Hollywood helped expand the fashion industry globally through its intermedial reach. Her work focuses on the critical study of media discourses originating in public relations, advertising, and other communication practices, aiming to unavel how ideas travel into popular culture manifesting in social and cultural phenomena.

Her doctoral dissertation consisted of a historical study of the Academy Awards ceremony and its red-carpet pre-show. The study traced the liaison between Hollywood and fashion institutions, showing how public relations campaigns and the media articulated fashion discourses around the Oscars during the postwar that led to the institutionalization of the red-carpet as a fashion event to promote fashion designers and brands.  

Scholarly interests include: Hollywood history, celebrity culture, Americana, globalization, and mass media. Fashion and costume design history. Public relations, advertising, and marketing practices within the culture industries. Critical theory, cultural history, DHA, and archival research. Experience-based learning, complex thought, and transdisciplinarity. Epiphenomena.

Elizabeth is currently finishing a book about the history of the Academy Awards red-carpet phenomenon for Edinburgh University Press.

She is also developing a digital humanities research project together with MEP. (More to be announced)