Aperio Series of Humane Texts

The Aperio Series is a unique initiative that enables faculty and students to collaborate on original research and publish or desseminate their work to a public audience.

Most projects begin with an idea and an opportunity:  an archive that has not been fully explored, a story needing to be told, a creative idea to be explored. A faculty member—often with the help of a student or students—outlines how this text, material, idea, or story could be explored, explained, or communicated. The faculty member and student(s) discuss the plan with colleagues and other students; at this point, other students may volunteer or be enlisted to participate. The parties fashion a proposal that they submit to the Center for the Humanities. Projects vary, but most will involve student summer research or creative inquiry, followed by a seminar in the succeeding fall or spring semester; that course is followed by, or concurrent with, the work of dissemination, which may be in conjunction with another course, developed as a Private Study, or through work as a Research Assistant. For examples of successful proposals, see the proposals by Joseph Walsh on Perpetua's Passion and Mark Osteen on the history of Baltimore Jazz and Jean Lee Cole on the Women's Literary Club of Baltimore. 

The following guidelines furnish details about how projects should be proposed and how they are evaluated.

Project Composition

1. Each project must have at least one faculty supervisor from a Loyola Humanities department and a student project manager. 

2. Ordinarily, each project will include a seminar to be taught by the faculty supervisor in the department where they regularly teach. The publication/dissemination portion of the project may occur in the same semester as the Aperio seminar or in the following semester, depending on intended output format and research/production plan. 

3. The faculty supervisor should select the students to participate in the project no later than the semester prior to the semester in which the Aperio course will be taught.

4. Each Aperio seminar should consist of between 7 and 10 students, of whom at least half should receive a summer research stipend (these should be included in the budget). One student—usually, but not always the project manager—should act as liaison between the faculty supervisor(s) and the group working on pulbication (as appropriate); one stipend may be reserved for that student liaison, even if they are not the project manager. Summer housing for students receiving Aperio stipends may be available at a discounted rate. 

5. The faculty supervisor receives a stipend equal to a Summer Research Grant. That figure should be incorporated into the proposed budget.

Application

1. The faculty supervisor and student project manager (if determined) send a cover letter with a proposal describing the project and its outcome (i.e., form of publication). The proposal should include a detailed timeline for each stage of the project, an outline of student duties, a detailed budget, as well as a description of the content and goals of the project. The proposal should also include a written letter of support from the publishing/presentation team (class instructor, Apprentice House advisor, Julio Fine Arts Gallery director, Greycomm manager, Theatre manager, etc.) that they have been consulted regarding scheduling and production/presention requirements. The proposal should be no more than 1,000 words in length. 

2. The budget should include items such as student research stipends and a faculty stipend. It may also list expenses such as travel, relevant research materials, publicity, and other essentials. Project supervisors are encouraged to find ways to limit costs.

3. The chair of the applicant’s department should submit a brief letter of support, approving the proposal and acknowledging that the applicant’s home department can allow her or him to teach an Aperio seminar instead of his/her regular course. If the dissemination component will involve a course or directed/private study, the relevant Chair should be consulted as well.

4. No more than one Aperio project will be approved each academic year. The deadline is the last working day of October. It would be helpful to communicate with the CFH director at least a month before the deadline about an intention to submit an application for an Aperio project.

Approval Criteria

1. Each Aperio project must involve a significant scholarly or creative endeavor in the humanities, communication, or creative arts, whether it be editing or translating a text, conducting archival research, documentary storytelling, creative practice, or some similar combination of research, annotation, interpretation, creative scholarship, etc. The Steering Committee is likely to favor cross-disciplinary projects.

2. Each project must involve original research and scholarly/creative work by students, which may include library or primary source research, interviews, writing and editing, annotation, translation, bibliographic work, indexing, creative production, and collaboration amongst seminar participants.

3. Each project must yield publishable/presentable material that makes an original contribution to knowledge in the humanities or arts. For example, the publication might be a translation of a foreign-language text not available in English, or available only in an outdated or obscure form; it may be a collection of significant materials never previously gathered; it may be a newly annotated version of a well-known text; it may be a film; it may be a creative project, etc. The proposal should address how the work relates to the Program's mission of engaging students in humanities and arts research and publication.

4. If publication is to be done through a Loyola course (such as the Apprentice House courses or video or web production courses in the Department of Communication and Media, or performance or exhibition courses in the Department of Visual and Performance Arts) then the Aperio application must include a letter of cooperation/approval from the instructor of this publication course or the chair of the department in which the course is offered. Courses that might be able to produce certain types of Aperio publication as course projects include, but are not limited to: CM 352 – Graphics II, CM 353 – Video II, CM 371 – Web II, CM 401 Sr. Capstone in Digital Media, CM 374 – Documentary Production, CM 382 – Intro to Book Publishing (Apprentice House), CM 318 – Data Visualization and Storytelling, DS 497 – Ethical Data Science Capstone, AH406 – Museum Studies, MU351 – Recording Studio II, DR375 – Evergreen Players Production, AH/SA/PT 350 – Visual Thinking. 

5. The Steering Committee considers careful budgetary planning in evaluating proposals.

Publication

1. Approved and completed Aperio projects will be disseminated as disciplinarily appropriate in a public setting. This may be as a book in print and digital formats by Apprentice House, online as digital scholarship, a video or series of videos published online, in a Gallery or on the Stages, etc. The onus for initial presentation format determination is on the proposing faculty supervisor and student project manager, in further consultation with the steering committee. Where possible, those responsible for presenting the work should be involved the planning conversation from the beginning. When projects arrive at the publication stage, they must meet the deadlines set by publishing/presenting venue. 

2. The publication must include, as appropriate, scholarly apparatus, including endnotes, bibliography, index, etc., or subscribe to equal disciplinary norms. 

3. All royalties for the presented works will be divided evenly between the publishing venue and the Center for the Humanities. 

Deadline

The last working day of October.