Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is a Fulbright Scholar and an Anders Zorn Sweden-America Foundation Research Fellow at USC School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California. She holds a doctoral degree in Fashion Studies from Stockholm University, a master of arts in cinema studies from the same institution, and a bachelor of science (hons.) in public relations from U.A.D.E (Universidad Argentina de la Empresa).
Castaldo Lundén has been awarded the Rettig Prize 2024 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities for her research on the fashion industry and the working functions of the film medium, social analysis in relation to fashion, film and television. The Academy's press release states that "Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén's research, in its wealth of perspective and power, is fundamental to the subject's identity and has given perspective on the possibilities of fashion studies." (Vitterhetsakademin 2024)
Her research explores the media dimensions of the historical liaisons between Hollywood and the fashion industry. She is particularly interested in studying how Hollywood's intermedial reach helped propel the international fashion system through the global circulation of cultural and economic capital.
Castaldo Lundén departs from the study of discourses originating in public relations, advertising, marketing, and other institutional practices to understand how ideas travel into popular culture and manifest in social and cultural phenomena. Her work contributes to the pool of knowledge about the United States's rise to power in the global arena by circulating popular culture to propel consumer culture during the 20th Century. Her research is heavily driven by archival sources and integrates fashion, cinema, and media history.
Her latest book, Fashion on the Red Carpet: A History of the Oscars, Fashion, and Globalisation, historicizes 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 media event. She is currently writing a book about the history of fashion in newsreels.
Experience
2023–present
Fulbright Scholar | SweAmfo Research Fellow, University of Southern California
2022–2023
Assistant Professor, Linnaeus University
2021–2022
Assistant Professor, Stockholm University
2018–2021
Lecturer, Stockholm University
2013–2018
TA/Doctoral candidate, Stockholm University
2000–2003
Jefe de trabajos prácticos, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa
1998–2000
Ayudante de Cátedra, Universidad Argentina de la Empresa
Education
2018
Stockholm University, Doctor of Philosophy in Fashion Studies
2012
Stockholm University, Master of Arts in Cinema Studies
1998
Universidad Argentina de la Empresa, Licenciatura en Relaciones Publicas (BSc)
Publications
2023
“Branding the Oscarcast: The Public Relations Strategies that Established the Academy Awards Ceremony as a Media Spectacle.”, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television V. 43, no. 1
2022
“The Most Famous Costume Designer: Revisiting Edith Head’s Career Through a Contractual Lens.”, Film History 34, no. 4
2021
Fashion on the Red Carpet: A History of the Oscars, Fashion and Globalisation, Edinburgh University Press
2021
“Reporting Fashion News: Fashion Moving Images from News Films to Web Series.”, Insights on Fashion Journalism
2020
“Exploring Fashion as Communication: The Search for a New Fashion History Against the Grain.” , Popular Communication: The International Journal of Media and Culture 18, n. 4
2020
“Fearless Fashion, Rudi Gernreich.” , Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture V. 24, no. 5
2019
“Användningen av digitala arkiv inom humaniora.” , Humanistiska fakultetens 1919-2019: Nedslag i humaniora
2019
“Editorial Foreword - Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Fashion and the Moving Image.” , Journal of Film, Fashion, and Consumption Vol. 8 No. 1
2018
Introduction to “Exploring the Intersections of Fashion, Film and Media.”, Networking Knowledge Vol. 11, no. 1
2016
“Barbarella’s Wardrobe: Exploring Jacques Fonteray’s Intergalactic Runway.” , Film, Fashion, and Consumption Vol. 5, no. 2
2015
“Lo Squalo, le strategie di marketing della universal e la costruzione della ‘Jawsmania’.”, Cinergie 7
2014
“No Oscar for The Oscar? Behind Hollywood’s Walk of Greed.” , Networking Knowledge 7, no. 4