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.