By Francis Von Mann 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 29, 2025) - Janice W. Fernheimer, Ph.D., University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences professor, has been named a 2025-26 fellow of the Jewish Writers Institute Digital Storytellers Lab, a competitive program that supports and amplifies Jewish-themed creative projects. Digital Storytellers Lab fellows develop and produce untold and lesser-known Jewish stories or familiar stories retold in innovative ways and for new audiences. Fellows receive yearlong mentorship, funding and immersive educational experiences. 

Fernheimer’s project, "America’s Chosen Spirit," is a historical fiction web comic created with New York Times best-selling author and illustrator JT Waldman. The serial narrative follows a Jewish Kentucky woman and her family across four pivotal eras in Kentucky bourbon history — Reconstruction, Temperance, Prohibition and Repeal — while highlighting the untold contributions of Jewish, female and Black Kentuckians as well as other groups who shaped the industry. 

A faculty member in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, Fernheimer also serves as the Zantker Professor of Jewish Studies and a James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits faculty fellow. Her research and teaching span Jewish studies; writing, rhetoric, and digital studies; oral history; and the intersections of Kentucky bourbon and culture. She teaches two Bourbon-focused writing courses in the interdisciplinary Certificate in Distillation, Wine and Brewing.  

She is the author of "Stepping Into Zion: Hatzaad Harishon, Black Jews and the Remaking of Jewish Identity" and co-editor of "Jewish Rhetorics: History, Theory, Practice." With collaborators, she established the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence Jewish Kentucky Oral History Project, which houses more than 130 oral histories at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History; and the Women in Bourbon Oral History Project, which houses more than 60 interviews. Her work has earned recognition including the 2020 MidWest Archives Conference Presidents’ Award and the 2024 Bourbon Women Foundation’s Ally of the Year Award for her Women in Bourbon Oral History Project. 

To learn more about or stay connected with America’s Chosen Spirit  as it develops, reach out to Dr. Fernheimer. Information about the Jewish Writers Institute and her fellowship can be found at  jewishwritersinstitute.org/fellows/janice-fernheimer.