Biography

Joshua Tonkel was born and raised in Memphis, TN, before heading to Penn State University for his undergraduate studies. Wanting to pursue history, but not wanting to abandon his lifelong interest in science, Josh double-majored in History and in Biochemistry. After graduating from Penn State, Josh found an opportunity to combine these interests, and moved to the University of Notre Dame to pursue a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science, which he earned in the summer of 2025. Josh believes that an appreciation of history and science makes you both a better historian and a better scientist, and he loves to bring this interdisciplinary perspective into all of his classes.

Josh's interest in the history of science began during his junior year at Penn State when he got an internship with the Pasto Agricultural Museum. He spent hours in the Penn State archive reading the publications of Henry Armsby, a prominent agricultural scientist from the early 1900s. Building on this experience, Josh wrote his dissertation at Notre Dame on the history of agricultural science from the founding of land-grant schools in the 1860s to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Whether poring over old documents in university archives, standing in corn fields talking to agricultural researchers, or teaching undergraduates in a myriad of history courses, Josh is on a continual quest to figure out how and why American science has changed over the past 150 years and pass on that knowledge to aspiring science students today.

Outside of work, Josh is an avid college sports fan, especially college football and basketball. Josh also enjoys reading science fiction and fantasy books (the longer the better) and playing board games with friends.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

• Ph.D., History and Philosophy of Science, University of Notre Dame, 2025
• M.A., History, University of Notre Dame, 2024
• B.S., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University, 2019

Affiliations

• History of Science Society
• History of Education Society

Expertise

• History and Philosophy of Science
• 19th/20th Century US History
• Environmental History

Recent Publications

• “Reaching ‘The Man Farthest Down’: The Origins and Early Development of Agricultural Extension at Tuskegee Institute, 1881-1914,” The Journal of African American History, forthcoming Summer 2025.
  
  

• “Grounded Science: The Shrinking Scale of the Local Environment in Agricultural Research and Extension at Iowa State, 1858-1914,” Annals of Iowa, Volume 83, no. 4 (Fall 2024), 283-308.