Janacek awarded fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington

Bruce Janacek, North Central College associate professor of history, has been awarded a three-month fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., to pursue research for his book titled “Elias Ashmole: A Study in Virtuosity.”  

Janacek will study a wealth of rare seventeenth century printed materials within the library. Having already studied Elias Ashmole’s approach to alchemy, Janacek is now pursuing Ashmole’s wide-ranging interests and areas of expertise that identified him as a “virtuoso.” Janacek hopes to recover this lost approach to knowledge, when topics were not thought of as distinct entities, but rather as part of a seamless robe of learning.

A faculty member at North Central since 1999, Janacek earned his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, his M.A. from The George Washington University, and Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.