Faculty Lecture Series: Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora

Dr. Emily Colbert Cairns will present on her new book Esther in Early Modern Iberia and the Sephardic Diaspora.  During her presentation Dr. Colbert Cairns will discuss Esther, the Jewish woman who marries the King of Persia and saves her people, was contested in the cultures of early modern Europe and authored as a symbol of conformity and resistance. At once a queen and minority figure under threat, for a changing Iberian and broader European landscape, Esther was compelling and relatable precisely because of her hybridity.