susan c. desse is the first visual artist awarded a Fellowship by the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies University of Michigan. Her participation (Fall semester, 2013) has focused her work within the institute’s 2013/14 theme “New Perspectives on Gender in the Jewish Community.”


Dessel researched Martha Gruening: suffragist, lawyer, journalist, civil rights activist for blacks, women and non-conscription, …


The artist has begun creating a new body of work based on and in honor of Gruenig’s life and work.

Colloquium e-vite
dessel presenting "WORDS FROM A BLACK MARIA" (12/05/2013)
Martha Gruening Suffragist
1911, August. Martha Gruening Night Letter (Telegram)