Billy Holzberg is a sociologist and social theorist whose research examines how gender and sexuality intersect with the rise of nationalism, border regimes, and far-right movements. Combining queer feminist theory, affect studies, and political and cultural sociology, he explores how emotions, intimacy, and desire shape contemporary forms of power and resistance.

Prior to joining King's College London, he was a Fellow in Gender and Sexuality at the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics, where he also completed his PhD in the Department of Gender Studies. Billy sits on the editorial board of the Sociological Review, the steering committee of Queer@King’s, and the advisory board of SexSense – Europe’s leading umbrella organisation for advancing comprehensive sexuality education. Billy has been a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York City and at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil.

Research

Billy Holzberg’s research explores the relationship between gender and sexuality and the rise of nationalism, border regimes, and the authoritarian far-right in three main ways:

• Affect, Emotion, and Desire in National Bordering: His work investigates the role that affect, emotions, and sexual desire play in fuelling nationalism and intensified border regimes. He does so by bringing queer feminist theories of affect into the heart of sociological analysis. This line of research culminated in his first monograph, Affective Bordering: Race, Deservingness and Migration Control (Manchester University Press, 2025), which won the 2025 BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for the best first and sole-authored book in the discipline of sociology.
• Gender, Sexuality and Authoritarian Nationalism: He studies how racialised discourses of gender and sexuality operate within authoritarian nationalism, and how these affect gender equality and sexual freedom. He is the co-editor of Transnational Anti-Gender Politics: Feminist Solidarity in Times of Global Attacks (Palgrave, 2025), which examines how different actors across the globe unite in their opposition to ‘gender’ to roll back feminist and queer achievements, and how they foster authoritarian nationalist regimes in doing so.
• LGBT Resistance and Survival: His research explores how individuals affected by the rise of nationalist authoritarianism – particularly queer and trans people – navigate, endure, and resist such regimes. He is currently developing a larger project on anti-authoritarian activism amongst LGBT communities and is the co-author of Bad Sex: Affect, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary TV (Bloomsbury 2025), which examines popular culture as a potential site for more honest discussions of sex and gender amid social and cultural rollback.

Most of Billy’s work is collaborative, interdisciplinary, and transnational in scope. His work has been supported by the German National Academic Foundation, the British Academy, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Brazilian Ministry of Education, and the transCampus initiative. He actively collaborates with civil society organisations, grassroots activist networks and artist collectives.

Teaching

Billy is deputy programme lead for the BA in Social Sciences where he currently convenes modules on ‘The Everyday Politics of Gender and Sexuality’, ‘Media, Culture and Society’ and ‘Civil and Political Rights’.

PhD Supervision

Billy is happy to supervise and support PhD projects on any of the following areas:

• Affect, Emotions, and Sexual Desire
• Queer Theory and Politics
• Bordering, Nationalism and Anti-Nationalism
• Gender and Anti-Gender Movements
• Sex Education, Political Education, and Liberatory Pedagogies
• Representations of Sex, Gender and Sexuality

He looks forward to receiving proposals for the PhD in Interdisciplinary Policy Studies.