Nicole Tonkovich

Nicole Tonkovich is a Professor of American Literature at the University of California, San Diego, affiliated with the Division of Arts and Humanities. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Utah and specializes in 19th-century American women’s cultural productions, including nonfiction works like journalism, diaries, and anthropological monographs. Her research focuses on figures such as Alice C. Fletcher (anthropologist) and E. Jane Gay (photographer), particularly their work with the Nez Perce tribe. She served as editor of Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers (2006–2013) and has been honored with the 2013 Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award for her interactive classroom style.

• Research Interests: Women’s education history, Indigenous studies, literature-photography intersections, and archival analysis
• Teaching: Courses on 19th-century US literature, American Gothic, and westward expansion

Her major publications include The Allotment Plot (2012) and Trading Gazes (2003), analyzing intersections between anthropology, photography, and Native American survivance. She has curated archival collections like the E. Jane Gay Photograph Collection and contributed to critical essays on topics ranging from disability in Deadwood to Margaret Fuller’s travel writings.

Her work emphasizes historical contextualization of texts, with a focus on marginalized voices in 19th-century America. Current projects include editing A. Jennie Bartlett’s Elder Northfield's Home (forthcoming 2014) and archival cataloging of Nez Perce materials.