Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén

Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is a transdisciplinary scholar working in the intersections of fashion, media, and cinema studies 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). Aside from her academic experience, Castaldo Lundén worked as a PR officer in the entertainment and retail industries for over a decade.

Due to her interest in promoting archival research, she 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). In 2014, she discovered Jacques Fonteray’s private archive and collaborated with Fonteray’s family to donate the material for preserving 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.

Castaldo Lundén's research addresses the crossover between Hollywood and the fashion industry from a historical perspective. Her work departs from the study of media discourses originating in public relations, marketing, advertising, and other communication practices to understand how ideas travel into popular culture, manifesting in social and cultural phenomena. She is particularly interested in studying epiphenomena and pseudo-events to understand how Hollywood's intermedial reach helped propel the international fashion system through the global circulation of cultural and economic capital. Her work is heavily grounded on archival research and integrates fashion, cinema, and media history using a transdisciplinary approach.

Her latest book, Fashion on the Red Carpet: A History of the Oscars, Fashion, and Globalisation published by Edinburgh University Press, analyzes the Academy Awards' red-carpet phenomenon, tracing the liaison between Hollywood and fashion institutions to explain how public relations campaigns and the media articulated fashion discourses around the Oscars leading to the institutionalization of the red-carpet as a global fashion event in its own right.

Scholarly interests include: Public relations, advertising, and marketing practices within the fashion and culture industries. Hollywood history. Fashion and costume design history. Self-referential Hollywood. Celebrity culture. Consumer culture. Popular culture. The American Century. Globalization and mass media. Epiphenomena and pseudo events. Archival Research Experience-based learning. Complex thought and transdisciplinarity.

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