Two full-time and one part-time staff oversee the CET Siena program. The Italy Programs Director, based in Florence, manages academics and oversees faculty and staff. The Resident Director, based in Siena, oversees field trips, activities and housing and helps students adjust to life in Italy. Finally, a CET Italian roommate serves as program assistant and offers support to all staff members and students on day-to-day issues.
Most faculty come from the University of Siena, the University of Florence, and Università per Stranieri di Siena (The University of Siena for Foreigners).
Gene Baldini Gene Baldini is a native born American who has resided with his family in Italy for the past twenty years. He received an M.F.A from the prestigious Hoffberger School of Painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art where he studied under the direction of Grace Hartigan and Salvatore Scarpitta. His B.F.A. was earned at the University of Illinois. Baldini has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards including a Fulbright fellowship to Italy for painting. He has exhibited on a regular basis in the U.S and various countries in Europe since 1975. His teaching experience spans sixteen years of working with students at all levels including graduate seminars. His work may be found in various private and public collections both in the US and Europe.
James Sholto Douglas James Sholto Douglas was born and educated initially in South Africa. He took a first degree majoring in English and History, followed by an Honors degree in English Literature. He then did a post-graduate Higher Diploma in Education and qualified as a secondary school teacher of English. After working in secondary education for 5 years, he changed to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in London, England and later Pisa and Florence, Italy. Residing in Italy for almost 20 years, he subsequently did an M. Phil through Bristol University specializing in Italian Cinema, with a dissertation on the contemporary Italian director Gianni Amelio. He has taught graduate courses in Italian cinema in Florence and Siena for the past 3 years, and also writes on film for The Florentine and Time Out, as well as giving talks on English language and Italian cinema in various cultural programs in Florence.
Alexandra Massini Alexandra Massini has studied Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, where she took her B.A.and M.A. degrees. She has worked at Sotheby's Auctioneers in Rome (Old master paintings and drawings) and the Thyssen Museum in Madrid. More recently she has written for Blue Guides and published her own guide book to Rome. She has been invited as guest lecturer and study leader for a number of European and North American institutions such as the National Trust U.S.and the Chrysler Museum of Art. Since 2005 she has been teaching for various American study programs such as Rutgers in Florence, Richmond in Rome and CET. Her fields of specialization include Roman Art, 14C art in Tuscany, Italian Renaissance Art, Michelangelo, the History of Sculpture, Baroque art in Rome.
Peirgiacomo Petrioli Piergiacomo Petrioli, PhD, is an art historian residing in Siena. He holds a PhD from the University of Turin and a Specializzazione from the University of Siena. His fields of interest include Renaissance Art in Siena, Art criticism and collection of Tuscan Renaissance art in England and America, and 19th-Century art criticism and restoration in Siena. He has published several articles and books, including a textbook about the Renaissance in Central Italy for non-Italian students etitled Percorso dell'arte italiana da Firenze a Roma. Petrioli has taught Art History at the University of Siena, New York University/Florence, and Dartmouth College/Siena. He is currently teaching History of Art Criticism at the University of Florence. His awards include a scholarship from the Armstrong Browning Library of Baylor University and a fellowship from the Roberto Longhi Foundation of Art History in Florence.
Peter Porcal Peter Porçal completed art history studies at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) and continued his research at the University of Leiden (Netherlands), Columbia University in New York (as a Fullbright visiting scholar) and the Vatican School of biblioteconomia (codicology) in the Vatican City, Rome. He has been affiliated with and taught art history at several North American institutions and universities, such as: Ontario College of Art and Design from Toronto, Richmond University in London, Fashion Institute of Technology from New York, and Malaspina University College from Nanaimo (Canada). For several years he has been teaching for CET Academic Programs in Florence and Siena, Italy. He has published mostly on iconography and iconology subjects in the works of Italian 15th and 16th century artists like Domenico Ghirlandaio, Andrea Mantegna, Correggio and Titian.
Floarea Virban Floarea Vîrban was born in Romania where she studied Letters (BA, in 1991) and Philosophy (BA in 1995 and MA in Theoretical Philosophy in 1996) at Bucharest University. She was awarded a first Ph.D. title (Magna cum laude) in Human Sciences in December 2003 (University of Bucharest) and a second one in June 2007 (European University Institute). Floarea is a researcher with more then 15 years of expertise in Academic research. She started working as a researcher in December 1991 for the Romanian Academy. She has continued her research career at the European University Institute which she joined in September 2000. She has served as a visiting researcher in Moscow (10 times, between 1995 and 2003, Russian Academy of Sciences and Russian State Archives), Budapest (1999, Hungarian Academy of Science) and Brussels (2004). Floarea is currently involved in a research project on Eastern Europe with the CSSEO (Centro Studi sulla Storia dell'Europa Orientale, in Trento) and is teaching European Politics at CET in Florence and Siena. Her main Academic interest is in trans-disciplinary and theoretical research in human sciences.
