Dr Alessandro Ceccarelli

Dr Alessandro Ceccarelli (he/him) is Head of LGBTQ+ Policy for the Welsh Government, supporting the Government on the development and implementation of the LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales and contributing to the HIV Action Plan for Wales. He has extensive research and policy experience in equality and human rights, building on his previous career in academia.

For 14 years, he has been a vocal advocate, particularly for LGBTQ+ rights and ending new HIV transmissions, in Italy, Spain, India, England, and Wales. He is a member of the Fast Track Cardiff & Vale Steering Committee – an initiative to end new HIV transmissions by 2030 in Wales. He also sits on the Board of Directors of National AIDS Trust as a Trustee – the UK’s HIV rights charity

He previously worked as a Senior Associate for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC Wales), was Chair of Trustees for the Graduate Union in Cambridge, and a member of the Cambridge University Council.

He completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge, where he was also a Research Associate and an Affiliated Scholar. He was social media and Wales representative for Queer Britain; and he’s Content Author for International Gay Rugby (IGR).

His past research projects were part of the TwoRains project funded by the ERC European Research Council. He was also supported by the Nehru Trust, V&A Museum, London, and by the Fitch Awards, British School at Athens, Greece.

He was President of the University of Cambridge Graduate Union (GU 2019/20), Chair of the GU Board of Trustees, and a Member of the Cambridge University Council. His main concerns are minorities, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, students access to education and research, as well as climate change conversations within academia. He is an openly gay man, the previous LGBTQ+ officer at Cambridge University, and he actively promotes and advocates gender and sexual diversity and equality in Cambridge. A list of works done with LGBT+ communities in the UK over the past few years is available here.

He was part of the ARC Archaeology Review of Cambridge editorial committee, an archaeology journal, and he ran the Asian Archaeology seminar group at the University of Cambridge. He was a visiting researcher at British School at Athens, Greece in 2018, and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India in 2017-18. He holds an MA in Archaeology (University of London, SOAS), BA in Archaeological Sciences at University ‘Sapienza’ of Rome, Italy, including an Erasmus Scholarship at UAM, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain.

Besides his career as policy specialist and researcher, he is an accredited member of archaeological bodies, i.e. CIfA, and worked at European and British museums, such as the Victoria and Albert Museum (Assistant Lecturer, Learning Centre), British Museum (Consultant, South Asian Department) and National Museum of Oriental Art “Tucci”, Rome (Department of Education).