New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1)

Publisher: In-Sight Publishing

Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014

Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com

Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Journal Founding: August 2, 2012

Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year

Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed

Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access

Fees: None (Free)

Volume Numbering: 12

Issue Numbering: 3

Section: A

Theme Type: Idea

Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”

Theme Part: 31

Formal Sub-Theme: None.

Individual Publication Date: July 1, 2024

Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2024

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson

Word Count: 1,314

Image Credits: None.

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885

*Transcript edited for readability.*

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*

Abstract

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the Founder of In-Sight Publishing and Editor-in-Chief of “In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal” (ISSN 2369–6885). He is a Member of the Canadian Association of Journalists in Good Standing and finished his term as a Tobis Fellow in July of 2024. Jacobsen discusses: Tobis Fellowship; activism; Young Humanists International: United Nations Women Canada National Committee becoming a foundation, Athabasca University, The Voice Magazine, and alignment of values. 

Keywords: contemporary challenges in humanism, enduring qualities of reason, fragmented and polarized discourse, humanist activist Scott Douglas Jacobsen, humanist organizations international, Mahtab Jafari Pharmaceutical Sciences, New Enlightenment Project, recent experiences in Ukraine, Russian-Ukrainian War research, Tobis Fellow University of California Irvine, war in Gaza, Young Humanists International leadership.

New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1)

Dr. Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson: Thanks for watching!

The critical challenge of our times is fragmented and polarized discourse that threatens the better world our civilization has built based on enlightenment principles.

The New Enlightenment Project provides education on the enduring qualities of reason and compassion, which define humanism and apply those principles to contemporary challenges. Today I am pleased to interview humanist, activist, and publisher Scott Douglas Jacobsen. We will talk about his recent experiences in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, and his experiences with humanist organizations, both domestic and international. I know you will enjoy listening to Scott’s insights on these and other questions.

Thank you for agreeing to this interview, Scott. First question, what is a Tobis Fellow and how did you become one?

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: A Tobis Fellow is an honor named after an individual with that name. He devoted his life to various ethical pursuits. The faculty he was part of is at the University of California Irvine Ethics Center. That’s the shorthand name for the institute. It’s run by a distinguished professor, Kristen Monroe, who specializes in political science and ethics. I interned there years ago when I was doing a series on women in academia for In-Sight, particularly the flagship journal, which was pretty much only interview-based at that time. That was when I interviewed Mahtab Jafari, who is a professor at the University of California Irvine in Pharmaceutical Sciences. She’s relatively well known at that institute.

She has some presence online as well. She recommended me to the Ethics Center. I got the position. At the time, I was a Francesco Ayala Scholar for the internship title. We were doing some analysis, some topics, and then we’d sort of collaborate amongst ourselves. You’d have people who were doctoral students and fresh students; I was speaking at the undergraduate level. Then that second level is Tobis Fellow, and that’s a more serious involvement for the year. But it typically culminates in a lot more active correspondence and research in the summer months, and that culminates in Tobis Day. So this year it’s probably going to be somewhere in mid-June. National will be, as you know, less accessible during the next few months, but as June opens up.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to either attend virtually or in person, most likely virtually. Regardless, some of the work I’ve done for the Russian-Ukrainian War, independently, I’ve collected the articles, the interviews I’ve done so far, as well as provided an introductory three-minute video statement for the Ethics Center so they could present that. In fact, that seems like it’s going to be the case.

So the Tobis Fellowship incorporates researchers into various ethical matters. At the time, it started around my focus on women in academia. So we’re looking at generational differences. The end goal is to turn that into text through a university publisher. It’s still ongoing, that first project, in fact. I have a lot of interviews with women in the academic system. However, at the same time, I pursue a lot of different paths, so they get completed as they get done. So the Ukrainian one is more immediate, so that took precedence. As the conversation evolves, I’m sure it’ll become clear where certain things become more morally urgent or financially urgent or otherwise. So those tend to take up the focus. So the Tobis Fellow, it’s an ethical fellowship that I earned through working my way up in that institute or that center in my second renewed year as a Tobis Fellow.

Robertson: So it’s a reflection of your ethical approach to activism. Would that be a concise description label?

Jacobsen: That’s fair.

Robertson: Okay, well let’s pursue that a bit more. Now, you and I met when you volunteered to become a member of a national essay writing contest for humanist youth, which is a form of activism. I chaired that committee and you subsequently became part of the Humanist Canada board. You’ve also been on the board of Young Humanists International. I believe you were vice president, were you not?

Jacobsen: Yes, so there was a period of transition there. One time I was treasurer, then was president, and then secretary general. The longest term was probably secretary general for Young Humanists International. It was all a piece of sort of finding out about not only the humanist ethos, but the local, the national, and particularly the international youth humanist community.

Robertson: And while active with that organization, you were working on a policy on indigenous rights. I recall that you talked to me about that at some length. When did you develop this interest? This is humanism applied to a wide variety of groups and constituencies. When did you develop this general interest in humanism broadly applied?

Jacobsen: I wanted to find areas not explored as much in the humanist ethos, in the humanist international community. Some of those were obvious upon entering into it. Others were more gradual. And then those two paths of finding out some right away and seeing others gradually converged into different themes of gaps in humanist discourse. So, as with a lot of these things, I simply decided to do them myself, rather than dilly-dally, try to run for bureaucracies, get things going, simply to get the conversation rolling in some of these areas. And one of those happened to be Indigenous rights. Well, not necessarily Indigenous rights in the humanist community, because it’s quite implied.

It’s ethical to focus on universal human rights. At the same time, indigenous representation was an issue and indigenous voices were an area of lack within the international community. So interviewing those people, writing articles, proposing certain things for those who have an indigenous background and getting involved where I can. But not being preachy about it. Just simply doing the work, proposing things, and seeing where that leads. And naturally, a lot of failures, with some successes as with anything. And then proceeding from the failures, trying to capitalize on them, while also learning from failures.

Robertson: And some of your volunteer activities have been with organizations that are not explicitly humanist. Like, for example, when you were at Athabasca University, you, I think, edited an online magazine, at least you were working with that magazine. You’ve been involved as a volunteer with a national women’s or feminist organization. Tell me about how you help organizations that are not explicitly humanist.

Jacobsen: I take it this way. I have particular values. If an organization or individual aligns with those values, I’ll work with them. Yet I don’t necessarily have to be dogmatically connected to the institution. It’s a mutual interest in common goals and then working towards those. So to advance those goals is to work with the organization. On individual projects, it is to do the same thing on an individual level without the limits of bureaucratic disagreements. And as with any organizational setup, I mean, organizations have their disagreements. So, I mean, the only disagreements I’ve noticed within this organization or leadership typically are personality-based and not really on the values. 

It might be on the individual leaders’ ranking of the common values and what they consider more important or less important. So what is emphasized less, what is emphasized more, and that becomes sort of a personality clash typically. So when it comes to these other organizations, what was United Nations Women in Canada became the Almas Jiwani Foundation and for the Voice Magazine of Athabasca University. I became involved in those through being in the milieu of Athabasca University with what was UN Women in Canada. I was emailing women’s rights organizations asking about getting involved. “I have some skills. I can contribute. I’ll work for free.” Ding ding ding, people think this is great. Free work.

Bibliography

None

Footnotes

None

Citations

American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Jacobsen S, Robertson LH. New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1). July 2024; 12(3). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/jacobsen-1

American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Jacobsen, S., & Robertson, L. H. (2024, July 1). New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1). In-Sight Publishing. 12(3).

Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S.; ROBERTSON, L. H. New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1). In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 12, n. 3, 2024.

Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott, and Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson. 2024. “New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 3 (Summer). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/jacobsen-1.

Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Jacobsen, S., and L. H. Robertson. “New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 3 (July 2024). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/jacobsen-1.

Harvard: Jacobsen, S., & Robertson, L. H. (2024) ‘New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 12(3). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/jacobsen-1.

Harvard (Australian): Jacobsen, S & Robertson, L H 2024, ‘New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 12, no. 3, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/jacobsen-1.

Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Jacobsen, Sam, and Lloyd Hawkeye Robertson. “New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 12, no. 3, 2024, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/jacobsen-1.

Vancouver/ICMJE: Jacobsen S, Robertson LH. New Enlightenment Project Podcast Interview with Scott Jacobsen (1) [Internet]. 2024 Jul; 12(3). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/jacobsen-1.

License

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Based on a work at https://in-sightpublishing.com/.

Copyright

© 2012-Present by Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Authorized use/duplication only with explicit and written permission from Scott Douglas Jacobsen. Excerpts, links only with full credit to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with specific direction to the original. All collaborators co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their purposes.