Calling all student artists! The FGCU Library Mural Project aims to foster a sense of belonging among students and enhance the library’s atmosphere through a live mural installation. The mural will be located between the Circulation and ITS Help Desks at the University Library.
The 2026 theme is Knowledge in Motion.
Evaluation Criteria:
Artistic Excellence: Creativity, originality and visual impact
Relevance: Connection to the theme and resonance with the FGCU student body
Feasibility: Practicality regarding scale, materials and execution
Eligibility & Selection:
Open to part-time or full-time FGCU undergraduate and graduate students
Submissions can be an individual or a group
Group submission must have a project lead. A committee of at least three will review proposals
The deadline to submit your application is Monday, December 1, 2025, by 5 p.m.
The mural will be recognized and celebrated no later than the last day of spring semester classes, Monday, April 27, 2026. It will be displayed until the end of the fall 2026 semester. In addition, the mural will be digitally archived in University Archives and Special Collections.
For more information and to submit your application, click here.
Questions? Contact Susan Bernier at 239-590-7650 or sbernier@fgcu.edu.
For humanities scholars, the traditional path to recognition has long been defined by single-author monographs from prestigious university presses and articles in select peer-reviewed journals. But in an increasingly digital academic landscape, how do we ensure that the full breadth of humanities-centric contributions, such as book chapters, conference papers, public lectures, digital projects, translations and creative works, reach audiences?
ScholarsCommons, Florida Gulf Coast University's institutional repository, offers humanities faculty a platform to showcase your diverse and rich scholarly work, making it freely accessible to students and fellow scholars worldwide.
Showcasing the Full Spectrum of Scholarship
Humanities scholars produce an extraordinary range of intellectual work that often goes unrecognized in conventional metrics. ScholarsCommons allows you to share conference papers, book chapters (many publishers allow authors to post pre-print or post-print versions, making your contributions to edited volumes discoverable and citable), creative/critical works, digital humanities projects and teaching philosophy and pedagogical innovations.
Addressing the Monograph Crisis
University presses face mounting financial pressures, publishing fewer first books and demanding that authors demonstrate pre-existing audiences. ScholarsCommons helps you:
Build visibility before book publication: Share related articles, working papers and conference presentations to generate interest in your research program
Extend the life of your book: Post your book's introduction or a sample chapter (with press permission) to attract readers to the full work
Share supplementary materials: Appendices, extended bibliographies, translations or images that could not fit in the published version
Document research impact: Downloading statistics and geographic reach data can strengthen book proposals and demonstrate public interest
Measuring Humanities Impact Beyond Citations
Traditional citation metrics often undervalue humanities scholarship, where impact unfolds over decades rather than years. ScholarsCommons provides alternative impact indicators:
Download statistics: See how many people worldwide are reading your work
Geographic data: Discover where your scholarship is reaching—often surprising international audiences
Altmetrics: Track mentions in course syllabi, policy documents and public discourse
Your Scholarship Deserves an Audience
That article on modernist poetry? Those essays on regional history? Your analysis of contemporary visual culture? They represent years of careful research, original thinking and scholarly expertise. They deserve to be read, cited and engaged with by the widest possible audience.
ScholarsCommons ensures your humanities scholarship transcends the limitations of traditional publishing, reaching readers who will value and build upon your contributions. In doing so, you're not just advancing your career, you're advancing the broader project of making humanities knowledge accessible, relevant and impactful in the 21st century.