October speaker was Rebecca White, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maine, Augusta, who shared with us her research into the history of women’s clubs, such as Yarmouth’s Village Improvement Society, and their lasting impact on local communities.
Rebecca White received her PhD from the University of Maine History Department in 2015 and her MA in European History at the University of Pittsburgh in 2002. She specializes in women’s history and gender studies. Rebecca’s dissertation examined the social history of mothers’ allowances in Maine and New Brunswick, with particular emphasis on the power structures and ideological basis of these state welfare programs, and ways that women, families, and communities worked within these rigid systems to maintain their families and assert some level of independence. These same themes of gender, authority, and power infuse her teaching and research.
The lecture series is sponsored by the Leon and Lisa Gorman Fund and is free of charge and open to all.
