Nicole Breault

Dr. Nicole Breault is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), specializing in early American legal and social history. Her research focuses on urban governance, gender, material culture, and carceral systems, particularly through her work on Boston’s nightly watches. She holds a master’s from the University of Massachusetts Boston (2014) and a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut (2022). Her grants and fellowships include support from the American Historical Association, American Philosophical Society, and others. She is currently on leave for spring 2025.

Her book manuscript, Set the Watch: Policing and Governance in Early America, examines how nightly watches shaped governance in colonial Boston, blending communal care with surveillance. Her articles span topics like policing in the Early Republic, religious-state dynamics, and land disputes in Mashpee Parish. She has been honored as a William Nelson Cromwell Foundation Fellow and a UTEP-EPCC Humanities Collaborative Faculty Fellow.

• Education:
• Ph.D., History, University of Connecticut, 2022
• M.A., History, University of Massachusetts Boston, 2014

Dr. Breault’s research engages interdisciplinary themes, including carceral history, legal practices, and the intersection of material culture with governance. She actively contributes to UTEP’s History Department and affiliated centers like the Borderlands Digital Humanities Center.