Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén

Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Media Studies. She holds a Doctoral degree in Fashion Studies and a Master of Arts in Cinema Studies from Stockholm University, and a Licentiate degree in Public Relations from Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE). During 2015, she was a visiting researcher at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Aside from her academic experience, she worked as a Public Relations agent in the entertainment and retail industries for more than a decade.

Elizabeth has lectured in the Fashion, Cinema, and Media and Communication programs at the department. Before moving to Sweden, she was a lecturer at UADE for five years (1998-2003). She was an editorial assistant for Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture (2016-2017), andi is currently an editorial board member for The Journal of Dress History.

In 2014, she discovered Jacques Fonteray’s private archive and collaborated with Fonteray’s family to donate this material, preserving his cultural heritage. Part of this collection is now available for other scholars to consult at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 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).

Elizabeth's research focuses on the historical liaisons between Hollywood and the fashion industry. She is particularly interested in studying how cross-industry collaborations helped develop an international fashion system through Hollywood's intermedial reach. Her work is heavily driven by archival research. It departs from the study of media discourses originating in public relations, marketing, advertising, and other institutional practices to understand how ideas travel into popular culture, manifesting in social and cultural phenomena. Her work contributes to understanding how the circulation of popular culture propelled consumer culture, contributing to the United States's rise to power in the global arena during the 20th Century.

Her latest book, Fashion on the Red Carpet: A History of the Oscars, Fashion, and Globalisation (Edinburgh University Press) unravels the history and politics behind the Academy Awards' red-carpet phenomenon.