Alexandru Zaharia (he/him) is a first-year PhD student specializing in the art and architecture of Renaissance Italy, particularly Florence and Venice. His interests center on the relationship between the built environment, craft production, and technical knowledge, with particular attention to ceramics, architectural materials, and the infrastructures through which people, objects, and resources circulated.

Zaharia earned his MA in Art History and Graduate Certificate in Public Humanities and Civic Engagement from Case Western Reserve University in 2026. His MA qualifying paper, Ornament and Order in a Florentine Hospital: Zaffera Pharmacy Vessels at Santa Maria Nuova, examined early fifteenth-century Florentine pharmacy ceramics through ornament, vessel typology, archival documentation, and institutional use. His undergraduate research at Massachusetts College of Art and Design examined the Mogoșoaia Palace loggia and artistic exchange between Venice and Wallachia.

His previous experience includes archival research in Florence, architectural preservation with the Cleveland Restoration Society, and object-based teaching at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He completed the Medici Archive Project’s paleography course in summer 2026 and is currently a Temple University Fellow.