Phenomenology – Davood Gozli

Reflections on the Apparent Reversibility of Time

Davood Gozli — Thu, 03 Sep 2026 21:14:27 +0000

One of the pleasures of writing these essays is the gradual realization of what it is that I am writing about. It’s a process like peeling, although I love all the layers equally, or like exhaling and sinking deeper underwater, although I like the surface, too. I worked on this essay for several weeks, and it was...

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How Note-Taking Can Support Understanding: Writing as a Form of Thinking

Davood Gozli — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 06:45:00 +0000

Here is a video in which I consider a commonplace and apparently straightforward activity, note-taking, and try to show its strangeness and potential. What are we doing when we take notes? Are we simply keeping a record of what we have heard or read, or can note-taking become part of the process through which we...

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A Chekhov Reading Project: Selected Stories (Pevear and Volokhonsky)

Davood Gozli — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 03:45:25 +0000

Starting this week, I’ve begun a reading project focused on Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The plan is to read slowly and post a short video commentary on each story. I announced the plan last week in this video. Below is the list of the stories/videos to be...

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Reading Erich Fromm’s On Being Human

Davood Gozli — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 23:55:14 +0000

“Today the primary issue is not the competition of people among one another and the antagonisms that result from the spirit of competition. Quite the contrary: People today form a team, a well-oiled group that works smoothly together, since this is the only way that large enterprises can function. Modern industry and economics have effectively...

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Soulful Interviews

Davood Gozli — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 14:17:05 +0000

What is a soulful interview? Why is it important? How does it impact research and recruitment? Every interview has the potential to be a singular event, yet most interviews gravitate toward patterns that are frequently repeated. The spectrum between complete uniqueness and total repetition represents the range in which most interviews take place. Interviews, whether...

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Re-Discovering the Richness of Everyday Life

Davood Gozli — Thu, 04 May 2023 21:05:05 +0000

Over the past two years, I have created a series of videos based on the book, Qualitative Inquiry in Everyday Life by Svend Brinkmann. I posted the final part a few days ago. In this post, I want to discuss the book’s importance and who can benefit from it. Why is this book important? First,...

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Kundera & the Poetic Imagination

Davood Gozli — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 03:54:56 +0000

Milan Kundera’s novel, Life is Elsewhere, contains both a celebration and a critique of poetry (aren’t the best critiques rooted in love?). The main characteristic of poetry, which is the target of his critique, is the force of poetic imagination toward finality. The poet, like a god, doesn’t simply consider a possibility; she creates and...

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A Different Kind of Loss

Davood Gozli — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 15:06:02 +0000

Having a good conversation about a painful topic is bittersweet. Having a good conversation about loss, for instance, has sweetness mixed with the core bitterness of the topic, and I think the sweetness comes from the truth we discover and the understanding we come to share. Even loss–and our attention to loss–can become a way...

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Never Just…

Davood Gozli — Thu, 13 Jan 2022 20:09:02 +0000

I have been listening to a few songs from K Republic’s 2010 album, All Those Things I Left Behind, and I have been really enjoying them, especially the first song in the album (“Speed”). What is significance to me, at this moment, about the experience of listening and loving music is that such an experience...

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Disquiet

Davood Gozli — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 13:04:05 +0000

The following excerpts are from the article, “Disquieting experiences and conversation,” by Lívia Mathias Simão (2020), published in Theory & Psychology. Disquieting experiences, according to Simão, are inseparable from human life, to the extent that we strive to know ourselves, others, and our shared realities. We are continually acting based on what we believe and...

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