CEPE Programs
The Luther College Center for Ethics and Public Engagement (CEPE) programs create opportunities for meaningful conversations beyond the classroom. Examine your assumptions. Exchange ideas and encourage responsible action in the world.
A Call for Luther Student Creative Submissions
In anticipation of Stephen Graham Jones’s visit to campus on October 29, The Center for Ethics and Public Engagement (The CEPE, pronounced “The Keep”) invites you to submit your creative work for a gallery exhibit exploring the theme we’re calling “Body Counts.” The exhibit will be displayed in the Dahl Centennial Union Gallery for all to experience.
This gallery exhibition is your chance to take a stab at engaging with any or all of these ideas & feelings from your own perspective. And if your work is selected for the gallery, you will qualify for a nice prize + Dr. Jones will be checking out the exhibition during his time at Luther!
Click below to learn about the theme and important guidelines. Deadline to submit is Oct. 25th
Questions? Reach out to Jenny Kunka at kunkje01@luther.edu.
About the Theme: “Body Counts: The Social Roles of Horror”
Inspired by the ways horror genre conventions open alternative approaches to critical questions of history, identity, oppressions and liberations, and more in Stephen Graham Jones’s work, “Body Counts” serves as a jumping-off point for your imagination and interpretation.
You don’t need to be familiar with Jones’s books to participate—you only need to bring a creative energy to this intentionally open brief:
Liminal Spaces, Body Horror, Eerie Sounds, Backrooms & Obsessions, Historical Traumas, Family Dynamics, Intercultural Conflicts, Haunted Houses, Aging to Mortality, Aging from Childhood into Adulthood, Food, Sex, Love, and Much More…
Who Can Submit: Current Luther students only
Artist Statement: All submissions must include a brief artist statement (200-300 words).
Please articulate what ethical questions or challenges you had in mind when creating your work. We specifically ask that you NOT explain/interpret your work of art.
Instead, think of the Artist Statement as a chance to get your audience into a mood and mindset so they can explore, analyze, and interpret your work themselves.
What You Could Create: We welcome submissions in any creative medium, including:
- Visual art (paintings, drawings, sculpture, photography, fabrics and textiles, digital media, etc etc)
- Written work (poetry, flash or micro fiction: 2-page maximum)
- Film and multimedia (that can be displayed using video or audio equipment)
- Performing arts (dance, theater, spoken word, or music captured on audio or video)
Deadline: Sunday, October 25, 12noon. We encourage early submissions. If you’re submitting on Sat, Oct 24 or Sun, Oct 25, please do so by email and then deliver any physical submissions on Monday, October 26 by 11am.
Creations must be 100% Human-Produced; NO Gen-AI-Products
How to Submit: Deliver your work and artist statement in person at The CEPE (Olin 214) or email them to kunkje01@luther.edu.
Cliff Grassmick/Staff Photographer
Stephen Graham Jones is an award-winning and best-selling author known for his novels The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, The Only Good Indians, and I Was a Teenage Slasher, as well as the Indian Lake Trilogy books, and multiple short-story collections. A prolific and popular voice in horror, Jones investigates and innovates upon genre conventions to delve into compelling and complex themes. His work calls up witches, werewolves, vampires, Elk Head Woman, and a wild array of slashers as his tales explore Indigenous identity, temporal entanglements of the past and present, colonial violence, generation gaps in tradition, religious and cosmological frictions, intersections of race-gender-class, human-animal dynamics, folk horror, epic basketball, bison, ticks, and the Gothic to name just a few.
In a piece called “Letter to a Just-Starting-Out Indian Writer – and Maybe to Myself,” Jones wrote, “Sneak over the line every time you can. Write where you’re not supposed to write, and then move on, do it on the next shelf over too. And the next, on down the line. Leave the whole bookcase red.” This statement is a call to disrupt the homogeneity and hegemony of genres–to unleash the unsettling powers of art.
This event allows you to:
- Share your creativity with the campus community.
- Converge the humanities, sciences, & arts to approach big issues from new angles.
- Connect with other artists exploring similar themes.
- Join the aesthetics & ethics conversations that Stephen Graham Jones is sparking.
- Engage with an exciting, multi-disciplinary event produced by The CEPE.
**The top 10 entries will receive a copy of a Stephen Graham Jones book, which you can get signed by him after his evening event on October 29, 7pm, in the CRH.
Join a Book Group
The CEPE hosts a series of book groups throughout each academic year. Book groups are open to Luther students, staff, and faculty, as well as members of the broader local community. Books are provided to all participants at no cost.