Susan Gzesh

At the University, she supervises student research, mentors undergraduates, and teaches courses on contemporary issues in human rights, the rights of migrants, refugees, and citizens, the right to water, and human rights in Mexico. Her research interests bridge human rights and migration policy. She co-directs the New Drivers of Migration project, funded by the UChicago Provost’s Global Initiatives program.

From 1977 until the mid-1990s, Ms. Gzesh practiced law in Chicago, working at the Legal Assistance Foundation, the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and at two law firms. She represented individual immigrants and refugees, as well as political candidates and religious organizations. In the 1980s, she was legal adviser to national and local religious organizations that participated in the Sanctuary movement. In 1983, Ms. Gzesh won political asylum for Dennis Brutus, a Northwestern University professor and prominent South African anti-apartheid activist. From 1996-2001, she co-directed the Regional Network of Civil Organizations for Migration, an international civil society coalition that advocated for the human rights of migrants with governments of the Regional Conference on Migration. From 1997–1999, she served as legal advisor to the Minister for Migration Affairs of the Embassy of Mexico. Ms. Gzesh was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico in 1990 and served on the Clinton-Gore Presidential Transition Team in 1992. She is active in local politics and on reproductive rights campaigns.