Dr. Nickerson began her education at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick with degrees in mathematics and visual art before continuing her studies in history and philosophy of mathematics and science at the University of Toronto’s Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST). From 2014–2017 she was a postdoctoral research fellow at York University under the supervision of Bernand Lightman working on projects Science and Religion: Exploring the Spectrum and the John Tyndall Correspondence. In 2020–2023 she edited the Bulletin of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics.
She has taught extensively as an adjunct and Assistant Professor at McMaster University and University of Toronto, offering courses in history of mathematics and the history of the philosophy of mathematics, studies in the conceptual foundations of mathematics, the history of statistics and data visualization, and science communication. She has developed and taught courses in creative non-fiction.
Selected Publications
(2023) “Marrying the radical, the conventional, and the mystical: Mathematics, gender and religion in the lives of William Kingdon and Lucy Lane Clifford,” Endeavour n.s. 47(4):100901. In the special issue Calculating Couples: Domesticity and Gender in the Making of Mathematical Careers, edited by David E. Dunning and Brigitte Stenhouse.
(2020) with Bernard Lightman and Parandis Tajbakhsh, “From Conflict to Complexity: Historians and Nineteenth Century Public Perceptions of Science and Religion,” in Identity in a Secular Age: Science, Religion and Public Perceptions, ed. Fern Elsdon-Baker and Bernard Lightman, University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 13-29.
(2019) “Darwin’s Publisher: John Murray III at the intersection of science and religion,” in Rethinking History, Science and Religion: An Exploration of Conflict and the Complexity Principle, ed. Bernard Lightman, University of Pittsburgh Press, pp. 110-128.
(2015) “Mathematics for the World: Publishing Mathematics and the International Book Trade, Macmillan and Co.,” chapter nine in Research in History and Philosophy of Mathematics, Proceedings of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, Maria Zack and Elaine Landry (eds), New York: Birkhäuser, p. 121-137.
(2013) “Referees, Publisher’s Readers and the Image of Mathematics in Nineteenth Century England,” winner of the Peter Isaac Essay Prize, Publishing History 71: 27-67.
(2013) “Taking a Stand: Exploring the role of the scientist prior to the first Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, 1957,” Scientia Canadensis 36: 63-87.
(2008) “Russell, Clifford, Whitehead and Differential Geometry,” with Nicholas Griffin, Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies n.s. 28: 20-38.
Media
Dr. Nickerson’s student, Shane Wang, received honourable mention in the HOM-SIGMAA student paper contest for an essay completed under Dr. Nickerson’s supervision in 2024. Dr. Nickerson’s research about Charles Darwin’s publisher, John Murray III, was highlighted in a 2020 article in Smithsonian Magazine.
Teaching Interests
History of Mathematics, History of Philosophy of Mathematics, History of Statistics and Data Visualization, Science Communication, Creative Non-Fiction.
