Sylvia Poggioli
Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.
Since joining NPR's foreign desk in 1982, Poggioli has traveled extensively for reporting assignments. These include going to Norway to cover the aftermath of the brutal attacks by a right-wing extremist; to Greece, Spain, and Portugal reporting on the eurozone crisis; and the Balkans where the last wanted war criminals have been arrested.
In addition, Poggioli has traveled to France, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark to produce in-depth reports on immigration, racism, Islam, and the rise of the right in Europe.
She has also travelled with Pope Francis on several of his foreign trips, including visits to Cuba, the United States, Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
Throughout her career Poggioli has been recognized for her work with distinctions including the WBUR Foreign Correspondent Award, the Welles Hangen Award for Distinguished Journalism, a George Foster Peabody, National Women's Political Caucus/Radcliffe College Exceptional Merit Media Awards, the Edward Weintal Journalism Prize, and the Silver Angel Excellence in the Media Award. Poggioli was part of the NPR team that won the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of the war in Kosovo. In 2009, she received the Maria Grazia Cutulli Award for foreign reporting.
In 2000, Poggioli received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brandeis University. In 2006, she received an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston together with Barack Obama.
Prior to this honor, Poggioli was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences "for her distinctive, cultivated and authoritative reports on 'ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia." In 1990, Poggioli spent an academic year at Harvard University as a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government.
From 1971 to 1986, Poggioli served as an editor on the English-language desk for the Ansa News Agency in Italy. She worked at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. She was actively involved with women's film and theater groups.
The daughter of Italian anti-fascists who were forced to flee Italy under Mussolini, Poggioli was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in romance languages and literature. She later studied in Italy under a Fulbright Scholarship.
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A group of foreign ministers makes urgent calls for a sustainable cease-fire along the Israel-Lebanon border -- and the deployment of an international force under a United Nations mandate. Many of the ministers said they wanted an immediate end to the fighting -- but they could not agree on a way to achieve that.
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In Rome, foreign ministers from the U.S., Europe and many Arab countries agree that an international force is needed to bring peace to Lebanon. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the ministers wanted a force under a U.N. mandate, with a strong and robust capability.
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joins European and Mideast leaders to talk about the conflict in Lebanon at a conference in Rome. Proposals to end the fighting have focused on deploying an international military force to keep the peace between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
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The accidental derailment of a subway train kills at least 30 people in Valencia, Spain. The initial indication is that the train was traveling too fast and lost a wheel. The accident occurred at the 1 p.m. rush hour, when Spanish workers return home for lunch.
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A summer-solstice festival on the Tiber River in Rome revived the spirit of the city's ancient, pagan past. The dusk-to-dawn celebration included a sound-and-light show created by Italian and American composers and artists.
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In a story that has enthralled many Italians, the pretender to the Italian throne, Victor Emmanuel, has been jailed over his alleged involvement in a sex scandal. The prince prefers to stay in jail rather than be granted house arrest in a nearby rented villa -- because, he says, there is no air conditioning. The lead investigator in the case, Henry John Woodcock, has become a minor celebrity. He is a Neapolitan with an English father. Transcribed wiretaps that have been published by the media reveal an underworld of right-wing politicians promising showgirls jobs in TV in exchange for sex -- which is said to take place inside the foreign ministry.
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The European Union's top justice official says the EU will organize an anti-racism campaign during the World Cup which starts in Germany on Friday. EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said the measure was meant to address growing concern across Europe that racism is spreading at soccer stadiums.
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German-born Pope Benedict XVI makes a solemn visit to the site of the Auschwitz concentration camp, ending a four-day tour of Poland. Benedict called the Nazi death camp "a place of horror."
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Pope Benedict XVI led an outdoor mass in Krakow, Poland, Sunday morning, addressing a crowd estimated at 900,000. Later he moves to the site of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, where he is expected to stress his commitment to improving relations with Jews and fighting anti-Semitism.
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Pope Benedict XVI arrives in Poland on a visit aimed at encouraging Poles to retain their Catholic faith, even as they integrate with a mostly secular European Union. Before departing Rome, the German-born pontiff said the trip was in part a tribute to his predecessor, Polish-born Pope John Paul II.