Dr. Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén is an award-winning scholar, author, and consultant who decodes the visual language of global glamour. Currently a Kluge Research Fellow at the Library of Congress, Elizabeth’s work sits at the fascinating crossroads of fashion studies and cinema history.

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She received her PhD in Fashion Studies and her MA in Cinema Studies from Stockholm University, following a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations from Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE).

Her research is uniquely informed by over a decade of professional experience in public relations within the entertainment and retail industries. This industry background provides a rigorous, practical lens for her analysis of how Hollywood globalized fashion through strategic advertising and media campaigns, shaping consumer culture and extending American soft power throughout the twentieth century.

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Lundén has published extensively on the historical cross-pollination of the film, media, and fashion industries. Her scholarship draws on meticulous archival research to reveal how institutional narratives entered popular culture, reinforcing America's influence as a global tastemaker. Her most recent book, Fashion on the Red Carpet: A History of the Oscars, Fashion, and Globalisation (Edinburgh University Press, 2021), charts the transformation of the Academy Awards' red carpet into one of the world's most powerful fashion media platforms, a shift driven by strategic Hollywood-fashion partnerships, PR campaigns, and expanding international media coverage.

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She is a frequent media commentator on the history of the red carpet and the long-standing liaisons between Hollywood and the fashion industry. As a member of the SCMS Media Archives Committee, she launched the interview series Conversations with the Archives to facilitate dialogue between archivists and researchers. Her work has appeared in various peer-reviewed journals and edited collections focusing on fashion and film history.

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In 2024, Lundén was awarded the Rettig Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, one of Sweden's most distinguished scholarly honors. The Academy recognized her work as "fundamental to the subject's identity," praising its breadth of perspective and insight into the possibilities of fashion studies.

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A recipient of the Fulbright Scholars Grant, the American Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship, and the Swedish American Foundation Fellowship, Lundén was named a 2025 Kluge Research Fellow at the Library of Congress, where she is currently pursuing new research on the history of fashion in newsreels.