Author and historian Brandy Schillace joins Queer@King’s and the Centre for the Humanities and Health for a talk about her latest book, The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story. Set in interwar Germany, The Intermediaries (WW Norton, 2025) tells the forgotten story of the Institute for Sexual Science, the world’s first centre for homosexual and transgender rights. Headed by a gay Jewish man, Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, the Institute aided in the first gender-affirming surgeries and hormone treatments, acting as a rebellious base of operations in the face of rising prejudice, nationalism, and Nazi propaganda.

An expert in medical history, Brandy Schillace tells the story of the Institute through the eyes of Dora Richter, an Institute patient whom we follow in her quest to transition and live as a woman. While the colourful but ultimately tragic arc of Weimar Berlin is well documented, The Intermediaries brings together forgotten scientific and surgical discoveries (including previously untranslated archival material from Berlin) with the politics and social history that galvanised the first stirrings of the trans rights movement. Through its unforgettable characters and immersive, urgent storytelling, The Intermediaries charts the relationships between nascent sexual science, queer civil rights, and the fight against fascism. It tells riveting stories of LGBTQ pioneers—a surprising, long-suppressed history—and offers a cautionary tale in the face of today’s oppressive anti-trans legislation.

This event will be introduced by KCL's Dr Zeena Feldman and chaired by Prof Neil Vickers. The evening will conclude with a drinks reception.

Speaker info:

Brandy Schillace, PhD, is a historian, author, journalist and novelist. Winner of the 2018 Arthur P. Sloan Science Foundation award and the 2024 Royden B. Davis, S. J., Distinguished Author Award, Brandy has bylines at WSJ, Scientific American, Globe and Mail, HuffPo, WIRED, Boston Globe, and UNDARK. She is host of Unsolved Mysteries of Medicine (2025) and the popular YouTube livestream, Peculiar Book Club. Brandy has appeared on Mysteries at the Museum with Don Wildman, The Unbelievable with Dan Akroyd, and Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny. She gives regular keynotes and is a tireless advocate for social justice, disability and LGBTQ+ representation.

Neil Vickers is Professor of English Literature and the Health Humanities at King’s College London, and co-director of the Centre for the Humanities and Health. In 2024-25 he was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust to write the first book-length history of the medical/health humanities. His latest book (co-authored with Derek Bolton), Being Ill: On Sickness, Care and Abandonment, was published by Reaktion Books in 2024. It is about what major illness does to social belonging in the WEIRD world (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich and Democratic).

Zeena Feldman is Reader in Digital Culture in the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, and Director of the Queer@King's Research Centre. Her research explores intersections between digital communication technologies and everyday life.