Sara Galletti received a joint Ph.D. in the History of Architecture and Urbanism from the Université de Paris IV–Sorbonne and the Università IUAV of Venice. Her main field of research and teaching is early modern architectural theory and practice, with a focus on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France. She has published on the urban history of Paris, on secular and religious architecture, and on the relations between architectural space, court ceremonial, and the accessibility of artworks. Her first monograph, Le Palais du Luxembourg de Marie de Médicis, 1611-1631 , was published in 2012 by Éditions Picard, Paris.
She is currently working on two research projects: "Practice into Theory: Philibert de L'Orme, the Premier tome de l’architecture (1567), and the Profession of Architecture in Early Modern France" and "Paris of Waters."

"Practice into Theory" is a book-length project that analyzes the connections between architectural theory and practice in fifteenth- to seventeenth-century France. It focuses on Philibert de L'Orme’s architectural treatise, the Premier tome de l’architecture  (1567), in relation to: early modern architectural theory across Europe; French practice in the late medieval and early modern times and the modes of transmission of architectural knowledge before (or aside from) theory; and the emergence of a new professional figure of the architect as construed in the contemporary discourse across Europe and as experienced in French practice.

"Paris of Waters" is a multimedia and book project that explores the impact of water on the demographic, social, architectural, and urban development of the city of Paris through time. The project is concerned with water in a wide array of forms – as resource, as commodity, as means of transportation, as funnel for the city’s waste, and as cause of disaster and death – and with making it visible as powerful agent of urban change. Paris of Waters challenges traditional urban history narratives – which tend to focus on design, monumentality, and the stylistic features of the built environment – by focusing on the role of infrastructure, underground works, and hydraulic management and engineering as defining elements of a city’s development and of its history.