William J. Spurlin is Professor of English and Vice Dean/Education in the College of Business, Arts & Social Sciences at Brunel University London. A specialist in comparative literature and culture, he has written extensively on the politics of gender and sexual dissidence across English, French, and German language contexts, and he is widely known for his work in postcolonial queer studies. His other books include Imperialism within the Margins: Queer Representation and the Politics of Culture in Southern Africa (2006); the co-edited volumes Comparatively Queer: Interrogating Identities across Time and Cultures (with Jarrod Hayes and Margaret R Higonnet, 2010); Écritures du Corps: Nouvelles Perspectives (with Anne Tomiche and Pierre Zoberman, 2013); and his forthcoming book is Contested Borders: Queer Politics and Cultural Translation in Francophone Writing from the Maghreb (2022). Professor Spurlin is Fellow of the British Academy of Social Sciences and Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the United Kingdom.

«‘Lost Intimacies’ represents a significant addition to Holocaust studies in its reexamination of gender and sexuality in Nazi ideology and policies and the persecution of gays and lesbians. William J. Spurlin theorizes and critically analyzes how homophobia is not merely a symptom of Nazi masculinity and how the persecution of lesbians is not merely a Nazi sideshow. Instead, his research persuades us that these issues are key to understanding the intricate relationships between the Third Reich’s antisemitism, racial politics, and nationalism.» (Phyllis Lassner, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois)«Drawing on queer theory, William J. Spurlin’s book offers a complex and sophisticated analysis of the historical records of homosexuality and lesbian experience under German fascism. It makes a timely and significant contribution to a marginalised area in Third Reich and Holocaust studies, identifying important implications for understanding contemporary culture.» (Chris Weedon, Cardiff University, United Kingdom)