PORTSMOUTH — As part of the celebration of Women’s History Month, Dr. Bari Watkins will be giving a lecture “Yes, We Did: American Women and Social Reform, 1870-1940” at 4 p.m. on March 16 in Room 215 of the University Center.

The presentation will feature discussions of several notable women including Frances Willard and Eleanor Roosevelt, and the role they played in American social reform.

Dr. Watkins is a historian from Ohio University Lancaster.

Watkins earned her bachelor’s degree at Rice University and her Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. at Yale University.

She teaches American social and cultural history, American women’s history, and American colonial history on the Lancaster Campus.

Watkins began her career in the History Department at Northwestern University, where she founded the Women’s Studies program and served as director of a research center on women’s issues.

She spent more than 20 years in academic administration as dean of the faculty and chief academic officer at three liberal arts colleges and as dean of the Ohio University Lancaster campus.

Watkins returned to full-time classroom teaching in 2004.

In her years in administration, she published and presented primarily on innovation in the undergraduate core curriculum and on the impact of feminist research on the academic disciplines, often at national meetings of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

She participated in the Harvard University Institute for Educational Management in 1996.

Watkins served on the board and as chair of the American Conference of Academic Deans.

Her emerging research interests are in food history and food studies in twentieth century America.

The lecture is free and the public is invited. For more information on “Yes, We Did: American Women and Social Reform, 1870-1940,” call the Women’s Center at (740) 351-3738.