Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén

I am a fashion, film, and media historian, currently working as a lecturer in the film and media sections of the Department of Media Studies.

I hold a doctoral degree in Fashion Studies and a Master of Arts in Cinema Studies, both from Stockholm University, and a Lic. Degree in Public Relations from Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE). During my doctoral studies, I was a visiting researcher at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California (2015).

Before moving to Sweden, I worked as a PR officer in the entertainment and retail industries for over a decade. I also lectured in Art History, Cultural History, and Creative Writing courses at UADE for four years.

In 2014, I discovered Jacques Fonteray’s private archive, while conducting research about the film Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968). I collaborated with Fonteray’s family to donate the material to preserve his cultural legacy. Part of this collection is now available at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Due to my interest in, and commitment to, archival research, I became a founding member and communication director of the Libraries and Archives Scholarly Interest Group at SCMS (Society for Cinema and Media Studies).

Among my extracurricular activities, I have been a jury and nomination jury for award ceremonies in Argentina (Premios Carlos Gardel a la Música) and Sweden (Guldbaggen). I have presented my research in international conferences, published articles, and guest-edited special issues in several academic journals.

My research addresses the interrelationship between Hollywood and the fashion industry from a historical perspective. I am particularly interested in how Hollywood's intermedial reach propelled the international fashion system through the global circulation of cultural and economic capital. I focus on the study of media discourses originating in public relations, advertising, and other communication practices to understand how ideas travel into popular culture manifesting in social and cultural phenomena. My work is heavily driven by archival research and integrates fashion, film and media history from a transdisciplinary perspective.       My 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, understanding how public relations campaigns and the media articulated fashion discourses around the Oscars leading to the institutionalization of the red-carpet as a fashion event in its own right. 

I am also involved in projects that address issues of material culture, archival access, and the digital humanities.

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

I am currently working on a book about the Academy Awards red-carpet phenomenon under contract with Edinburgh University Press, and writing several contributions for the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Costume Design.