North Central College professor receives prestigious NEH grant for research In England

The scholarly research of a North Central College history professor was selected to receive funding from a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant program.

Bruce Janacek, associate professor of history, was awarded a summer stipend to continue his research into the life and writings of Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) who, during his lifetime, was known as a “virtuoso.”

“Ashmole predated the age of specialization,” Janacek says. During this era, virtuoso described an individual who was knowledgeable on a wide range of topics, which for Ashmole included botany, heraldry, antiquities, alchemy and more. His collection of artifacts is the foundation of the Ashmolean Museum and his rare manuscripts and printed books are major collections in the Bodleian Library, both in Oxford, England.

Ashmole’s manuscripts are of particular interest to Janacek: his research is based on Ashmole’s personal papers and extensive collection of rare manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. He plans to continue his research and writing with the help of the $6,000 grant.

“During this time, intellectuals could be mocked because their knowledge was perceived to be useless, as opposed to practical knowledge such as how to make soap or get rid of grubs in a garden,” Janacek says.

In his NEH grant proposal, Janacek drew parallels between Ashmole’s virtuosity of knowledge and modern questions surrounding the value of the liberal arts. “This study offers a historical answer to the question of what kinds of knowledge do we value and why? The debate we’re having today is not new at all. It was born no later than the 17th century.”

The NEH summer stipend program is extremely competitive and employs an extensive review process to fund 8 percent of the applications submitted. Janacek adds that he’s grateful his grant application received input from peers in his research specialty, as well as Dev Pandian, North Central College vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, and Shelley Porcellino, the College’s director of grants. “Shelly read drafts of my proposal with an invaluable ‘outsider’s’ eye,” he says.

Other Illinois summer stipend recipients represent the University of Chicago and Northwestern, Loyola and Illinois Wesleyan universities.

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.

Founded in 1861, North Central College is an independent, comprehensive college of the liberal arts and sciences that offers more than 55 undergraduate majors and graduate programming in seven areas. Located in the Historic District of Naperville, Illinois—rated by Money magazine as among the nation’s “Best Places to Live”—North Central College is just 30 minutes from Chicago’s Loop. With more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students, North Central College is committed to academic excellence, a climate that emphasizes leadership, ethics, values and service, a curriculum that balances job-related knowledge with a liberal arts foundation and a caring environment with small classes. Visit www.northcentralcollege.edu to learn more.