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Presenter: Hannah Pressman

The story of my great-grandmother, Estrella Leon Galante, has fascinated me for over a decade. One of eight children, she grew up on the island of Rhodes and trained to become a French teacher at a Paris seminary. My project traces Estrella's journeys from Rhodes to France and then to southern Africa in the early 20th century. Her shifting landscapes and languages lie at the heart of my discussion. Among the questions I pose: What choices did Estrella have, or not have, as a Sephardic woman at a time of colonialism and rapidly changing world events? How can I best utilize the documents and correspondence that I possess in order to reconstruct her life? What's at stake for members of my generation who are trying to learn Ladino and access their family's past?