Alena Sauzade

San Jose

Alena Sauzade is the Gallery Director and Collections Manager at San José State University, where she oversees all aspects of gallery operations, including exhibitions, programming, the permanent collection, academic integration, and community outreach. Her curatorial approach is grounded in community engagement and interdisciplinary collaboration, working closely with artists, historians, and the public to create meaningful spaces for reflection and dialogue. Her exhibition projects bridge contemporary art with classroom curriculum and the broader community, fostering conversations around identity, memory, and social impact. Through inclusive programming, she advances the role of art galleries as vital civic and academic spaces. Alena’s research focuses on memorials and commemoration, particularly how contemporary art and visual culture engage with collective memory and historical trauma. She earned her PhD in Art History from Stony Brook University, where she specialized in public art and wrote Witnesses to Terror: Nationhood and Trauma in Memorials to Victims of Terrorism, a dissertation on memorials to the victims of the 9/11 attacks.