Jack Jacobs

Research Topic

The Sword or the Spirit: Global Lives in Non-Violence amid the Violent 20th Century

Supervisor: Faisal Devji and Ruth Harris

Associated with the Centre for Intellectual History, Oxford.

I am currently pursuing a DPhil in Intellectual History, generously supported by a Ramsay Postgraduate World Scholarship from Australia. My research examines why and how Western intellectuals engaged with the possibilities (and limitations) of Gandhian non-violence before the rise of totalitarianism as the world-problem of the 1930s, as well as how they adapted, abandoned, and at other times reinterpreted Gandhi’s ideas during World War Two and into the early Cold War. The thinkers I am considering, include: George Orwell, Simone Weil, Martin Buber, Mulk Raj Anand, and Albert Camus.

Before beginning my doctoral studies, I completed an MSt in Intellectual History at Oxford in 2024, fully funded by the Ramsay Centre. My thesis interrogated the influence of Edmund Burke’s moral and political thought on Gandhi’s own approach to imperial reform. Prior to Oxford, I served as the Yindyamarra Research Fellow at Yindyamarra Nugluway in Australia, where I advocated for the recognition of First Nations people and made political and intellectual contributions to the national dialogue then taking place around constitutional reform. I have also worked as a policy researcher at the Australian Human Rights Commission on a landmark culture review aimed at preventing sexual misconduct in the Australian Federal Parliament, and on similar culture reviews of university colleges and schools.

I hold a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Sydney, where my honours year was supported by a University of Sydney Honours Scholarship. My thesis focussed on the political thought Burke produced in the act of reforming the East India Company.

Beyond academic life, I host “In Conversation with Jack Jacobs,” exploring the intersection of intellectual history and contemporary politics. Previous guests include: David Bromwich, John Dunn, Linda Colley, Sylvana Tomaselli, Michael Ignatieff, Iain McGilchrist, Richard Bourke, and Uday Mehta. 

I am a writer and regularly contribute to literary and political magazines worldwide and regularly share my ongoing work—including my podcast interviews and essays—on my Substack.

Research keywords:

global intellectual history, history of political thought, political theory, non-violence, reform, imperial history, anticolonialism, democracy, liberalism, conservatism

Previous programmes:

MSt in Intellectual History, 2023-4 (University of Oxford, Oriel College), distinction.

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Philosophy, 2017-2021 (University of Sydney), First Class Honours