European History: Modern Europe, Modern Germany, History of Sexuality, Legal History, History of Science and Mathematics
Samuel Clowes Huneke is a historian of modern Europe, with a focus on the social and political history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Germany. He is broadly interested in how everyday life intersects with and shapes the relationships between citizens and states. His research foci include the history of gender and sexuality, legal history, and the history of democracy. Dr. Huneke received a B.A. summa cum laude in German and Mathematics from Amherst College, an M.Sc. with Distinction in Applicable Mathematics from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. in History from Stanford University. His first book, States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany, examines gay persecution and liberation in Germany during the Cold War and is forthcoming with University of Toronto Press. His recent scholarly publications include work on the history of gay suicide and on lesbianism in Nazi Germany. Dr. Huneke also regularly writes for venues including Boston Review, The Point, and Los Angeles Review of Books.
States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany (University of Toronto Press, 2022)
“Heterogeneous Persecution: Lesbianism and the Nazi State,” Central European History 54.2 (2021): 297-325.
"Death Wish: Suicide and Stereotype in the Gay Discourses of Imperial and Weimar Germany" New German Critique 46.1 (1 February 2019): 127-166.
Faculty Fellow, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, 2021-2022
Fenwick Fellow, George Mason University, 2020-2021
Mabelle McLeod Lewis Fellow, 2019-2020
Silas Palmer Research Fellow, Hoover Institution Library & Archives, 2016
Graduate
Germany in the Cold War
Global History of Sexuality and Gender
Nazi Germany
Undergraduate
Modern German History
Germany after Nazism
PhD in History, Stanford University, 2019
MSc with Distinction in Applicable Mathematics, The London School of Economics and Political Science, 2012
AB summa cum laude in German and Mathematics, Amherst College, 2011
"Queer Spaces in East Germany: Between Persecution and Liberation." Virtual webinar hosted by the Wende Museum as part of its series Cold War Spaces. June 17, 2020.
"Queer Conspiracies? Lesbians and Gay Men in Nazi Germany." Virtual talk hosted by Virginia Tech as part of the Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibit. April 2, 2020.
“The problem with a U.S.-centric understanding of Pride and LGBTQ rights.” Washington Post. 4 June 2021.
“A Gay Turning Point that Failed to Turn? The Beethoven Hall Podium Discussion of 1980.” History | Sexuality | Law. December 30, 2020.
"Can we hold Trump and his allies accountable without further splitting America?" Washington Post. 16 November 2020.
"An End to Totalitarianism" Boston Review. 16 April 2020.
“What’s Wrong with Queer History?” Boston Review. 28 June 2019.
“Gay Liberation Behind the Iron Curtain” Boston Review. 18 April 2019.
“Queering the Vote” The Los Angeles Review of Books. 27 January 2019.
"Does Germany Hold the Key to Defeating Populism?" The Atlantic. 29 March 2017.
"Why Gay German Men Are Seeking Reparations for a Homophobic Nazi Law." VICE. 19 August 2016.
“The gay-suicide stereotype kills gay people, and must end.” Aeon. 16 February 2016.
“The Queer Other: Queerness under the sign of conservative Islam.” Review of Evren Savcı, Queer in Translation: Sexual Politics under Neoliberal Islam (Duke University Press, 2021). The Baffler. 24 June 2021.
“‘Do Not Ask Me Who I Am’: Foucault and Neoliberalism.” Review of Mitchell Dean and Daniel Zamora, The Last Man Takes LSD: Foucault and the End of Revolution (Verso, 2021). The Point. 2 June 2021.
“Beyond Gay Imperialism.” Review of Mark Gevisser, The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). The Baffler. 24 March 2021.
"Black Germans and the Politics of Diaspora." Review of Tiffany N. Florvil, Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement (University of Illinois Press, 2020). LA Review of Books. 25 February 2021.
“The Death of the Gay Bar.” Review of Jeremy Atherton Lin, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out (Little, Brown & Co., 2021). Boston Review. 18 February 2021.
"When Democracy Ails, Magic Thrives." Review of Monica Black, A Demon-Haunted Land: Witches, Wonder Doctors, and the Ghosts of the Past in Post-WWII Germany (Metropolitan Books, 2020). Boston Review. 29 October 2020.
“Seduced by Respectability.” Review of Javier Samper Vendrell, The Seduction of Youth: Print Culture and Homosexual Rights in Weimar Germany (Toronto University Press, 2020). The Point. 19 August 2020.
"Recovering Queer Identities.” Review of Jen Manion, Female Husbands: A Trans History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). Los Angeles Review of Books. 18 July 2020.
"The Long Fight for LGBT Labor Equality." Review of Eric Cervini, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. The United States (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). Boston Review. 17 June 2020.
“Cashing in on Queerness.” Review of David K. Johnson, Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019). The Point. 20 February 2020.
“Atone—But Not Because it Will Save Democracy.” Review of Susan Neiman, Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2019). Boston Review, 16 December 2019.
“The Inadequacies of Justice.” Review of Mary Fulbrook, Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018). The Los Angeles Review of Books, 21 July 2019.
“Was Socialism Sexy?” Review of Kristen R. Ghodsee, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence (New York: Nation Books, 2018). The Point, 3 April 2019.
“What’s Left of the Gay Left?” Review of Martin Duberman, Has the Gay Movement Failed? (Berkeley: UC Press, 2018). The Point, 7 December 2018.
“Politics of Hate.” Review of Dan Healey, Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017). The Los Angeles Review of Books, 26 October 2018.
“Cruising Through Berlin’s Queer History,” Exberliner, 7 June 2021.