Profile for Sona Kazemi

Research and publishing

Books

• Disabling Relations: Wounded Bodyminds & Active Witnessing (June, 2025) under contract with Temple University Press's Dis/Color Series

• Transnational Abolition: Disablement, Resistance, and Collective Care in Iran’s Prisons (In Progress).

Edited Books

• Co-edited “Disabling States” with Rachel Gorman and Louise Tam (forthcoming, 2026) under contract with Canadian Scholars Press

• Co-edited “Towards a Transnational Solidarity Theory and Praxis: Locating Disability and Feminist Consciousness in the Global” with Hemachandran Karah and Efrat Gold (In Progress)

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• Kazemi, Sona, Efrat Gold, & Hemachandran Karah (2024).Mobile Immobility: Disability in Contexts of State Violence and Political Incarcerationin Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2024, Vol. 11 No.1

• Kazemi, Sona, Lin, Tricia, Li, Lin, Wang, Zhen [equal authorship] (forthcoming). “Cultivating Transnational Feminist Solidarity, Becoming Agents of the Non-Empire: A Conversation among Women-of-Color Scholar-Activists” a Forum Discussion for International Feminist Journal of Politics’ Special Issue “Feminist and Queer Critiques of Multiple Empires”

• Kazemi, Sona (2024) “Fetishization of the Disabled War Veterans in Iran through the ideological construction of “Living Martyrs” in special issue of the Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal Vol. 18 No. 4 (2024): v18i4 & v19i1: Special Issue: “Disability and China”

• Kazemi, Sona and Sarikaya, Berivan (2019) “Politicizing Disability-Production Mechanisms: Applying the Transnational Disability Model to a Case of Incarceration, Torture, and Hunger Strike/Death Fast of a Kurdish Political Prisoner in Turkey” in Zanj: The Journal of Critical Global South Studies Vol 2, No. 1, “Kurdish Culture, Identity, and Geopolitics: Toward Decolonization”

• Kazemi, Sona (2019) “Whose Disability (Studies)? Defetishizing Disablement of the Iranian Survivors of the Iran-Iraq War by (Re)Telling their Resilient Narratives of Survival” in Special Issue of the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies Vol 8 No 4“Survivals, Ruptures, Resiliences”

• Kazemi, Sona (2019) “Disabling Power of Capitalism, Nationalism, and Imperialism: Looking at War Injury through Dialectical and Historical Materialism, Disability Studies Lens, and Geopolitics” at Disability Studies Quarterly Journal Vol 39, No 3 (2019)

• Kazemi, Sona (2017) “Toward A Conceptualization of Transnational Disability Theory and Praxis: Engaging the Dialectics of Geopolitics, Third World, and Imperialism” published at the Critical Disability Discourse Journal Vol 8

Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters

• Kazemi, Sona & Efrat Gold (invited, forthcoming) “Piecing Together the Life of an Iranian Woman Political Prisoner: Defetishizing the Production of Madness and Disability through State Violence” in Disability History in the Modern Middle East edited by Sara Scalenghe and Beverly Tsacoyianis (Bloomsbury)

• Kazemi, Sona (invited, forthcoming) “Iranian Women’s Experiences with State Violence: A Marxist-Feminist Analysis and A Revolutionary Decarceration Pedagogy”. In Cameron, Rose E., Dionisio, Nyaga & Torres, Rose (eds.) Ethics of Difference in Anti-Oppressive Social Work (University of Toronto Press).

• Kazemi, Sona & Karah, Hemachandran (invited, forthcoming). “Cultural Imperialism and Life of the Mind: A Review of Cerebral Bias in Humanities Pedagogy and Beyond” In Da Silveira Gorman, Rachel & Le François, Brenda (Eds.), Palgrave Encyclopedia of Critical Perspectives in Mental Health. (Palgrave MacMillan)

• Gold, Efrat & Kazemi, Sona (invited, forthcoming) “Re-Educating Mad Dissidents Under Modern Theocratic State” in The Surveillance and Regulation of Madness in Educational Settings: Critical Pedagogy and Mad Futurities edited by Davis, Adam, Spring, Lauren, and Castrodale, Mark as part of Dr. Bruce Cohen’s edited book series, “The Politics of Mental Health and Illness” (Palgrave McMillan)

• Kazemi, Sona, Efrat Gold, Hemachandran Karah, & Mary Jean Hande (invited, in press) “Transnational Disability Praxis: Archiving Survival, Resistance, and Resilience Amidst Ongoing Emergencies” in Cripping the Archives edited by Jenifer Barclay and Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy as part of the series, “Disability Histories” (University of Illinois Press)

• Kazemi, Sona (2024). “Dislocated Selves, Incarcerated Rights” in Human Rights on the Move, as part of a new series, “On Possibility: Social Change and the Arts + Humanities” edited by Shuman, Amy; Hesford, Wendy (Ohio State University Press)

• Kazemi, Sona & Karah, Hemachandran (2023). “Making Sense of the Disability Autonomy and Collectivity Binary: A Review of Informal Disability Justice pedagogy (IDJP) across cultures” In Routledge Companion to Literature and Social Justice edited by Raja, Masood Ashraf and Lu, Nick T. C.
• Kazemi, Sona & Karah, Hemachandran (2022). “Madness as Response-Ability Against State Terror: A Case Study from Iranian Revolution” Under Disability and Intersectionality Section, Handbook of Critical Disability Studies, edited by Erevelles, Nirmala and Marrow, Marina in Rioux, Marcia H. & Addlakha, Renu © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. May 2022

Book Reviews

• Kazemi, Sona (2019) “A Review of The Other Mrs. Smith” a novel written by Bonnie Burstow published by Inanna Publications and Education Inc. 2017. 978-1-77133-421-1 at the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies

• Kazemi, Sona (2015) “A Review of Marxism and Feminism” edited by Shahrzad Mojab published by Zed book (2015) published at the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies

• Kazemi, Sona (2015) “A Review of Psychiatry and the Business of Madness” written by Bonnie Burstow published by Palgrave Macmillan published for Canadian Women’s Studies Journal

Published Conference Proceedings

• Kazemi, Sona (2015) “Untangling Disability and Race—A Dialectic: “Dangerous”, “Different”, and “At Risk” published @ Proceedings of the 34^th CASAE Annual Conference 2015

Editorials

• Kazemi Sona & Karah, Hemachandran: Disability and Multilingualism: A Global Perspective,at Review of Disability: An International Journal, Volume 17, Issue 2 published on July 17, 2021
• Kazemi Sona & Karah, Hemachandran: Disability and Multilingualism: A Global Perspective,at Review of Disability: An International Journal, Volume 17, Issue 1 published on March 31, 2021

• Kazemi Sona & Karah, Hemachandran: Disability and Multilingualism: A Global Perspective,at Review of Disability: An International Journal, Volume 16, Issue2-4 published on Jan 10, 2021

Contribution to Popular Media

• Kazemi, Sona (2022), “Is Hamid Nouri Mentally Ill?” published by RadioZamaneh Media Production https://www.radiozamaneh.com/717670/ آیا حمید نوری بیمار «روانی» است؟

• Kazemi, Sona (2021), “the Myth of Mental Illness and Violence,” published by Persian Media Production https://persianmediaproduction.org/article/چه-کسی-دیوانه-است؟/

• Kazemi, Sona (2021), “Representations of Disability in Iranian Film and Literature,” published by Persian Media Production: https://persianmediaproduction.org/article/بازنمایی-معلولین-در-ادبیات،-فیلم-و-سین/

• Kazemi, Sona (2020), Hosting A Radio Show, “Disabled People’s Civil Rights Across the Globe,” produced at Radio Pooya

• Kazemi, Sona (2020) “Disable People’s Rights: A Historical Sketch” published by Persian Media Production: https://persianmediaproduction.org/article/جنبش-حقوق-مدنی-معلولین،-مبارزه-با-توان/

• Kazemi, Sona (2020) « The Social Model of Disability” published by Radio Pooya: https://radiopooya.com/زنان-نیمه-برابر-گفتگو-با-دکتر-صونا-کاظم/

• Kazemi, Sona (2020) « Femicide in Iran » a Radio Interview with Jamileh Davoodi on Radio Pooya at https://persianmediaproduction.org/article/مدل-اجتماعی-معلولیت/

• Kazemi, Sona (2020) “A patriarchal legal system and culture don’t protect women; rather, they facilitate their murder in the hands of their family men” Published on Radio Zamaneh at https://www.radiozamaneh.com/515893

• Kazemi, Sona (2020) A Podcast Interview, Disability Saves the World with Dr. Fady Shanouda at https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dr-sona-kazemi/id1504141401?i=1000471112260

• Interview with Kevin Landers for 10TV WBNSO https://www.10tv.com/article/local-weapons-expert-iranian-born-resident-iraq-war-veteran-weigh-iran-relations-2020-feb on Jan 8 2020

• Interviewed on Tasvir-e-Iran TV Channel @ 4.00pm on July 24^th 2013, Topic: Education, Women, and Community Activism in Toronto

• Interviewed on Iran International TV Channel @ 10am on June 18, 2020, Topic: “Honor Killing” in Romina Asharfi’s Case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rYVrv-DrDQ

• Interviewed on Iran International TV Channel @ 10am on April 9, 2020, Topic: Disabled People’s Rights Under COVID-19: https://iranintl.com/ویدیو/چشم-انداز-زنان-کرونا-چه-تاثیری-روی-زندگی-ناشنواها،%E2%80%8C-نابینایان-و-افراد-دارای-معلولیت-گذاشته-است

• Interviewed by a member of the IranWire editorial team, Shahed Alavi for an article covering the suspicious death of a prisoner who was arrested after a prison riot in Iran: https://iranwire.com/fa/features/37629

• Talk with Lauren Tenney, Burstow and Associated Scholars Antipsychiatry/Mad Conversation: Presenting with Dr. Bonnie Burstow as an associated scholar about groundbreaking advances in antipsychiatry on February 17, 2017 from 5:30 - 7:30 PM Eastern - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/talkwithtenney/2017/02/17/talk-with-tenney-burstow-and-associated-scholars-antipsychiatrymad-conversation