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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The debate on whether Muslims can adapt to living as a minority in secular societies is surrounded by tension and confusion. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli concludes a five-part series on Muslims in Europe.
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A controversial new law banning Islamic headscarves and other religious symbols in France's public schools has triggered an anguishing national debate: Can France integrate Europe's largest Muslim population and achieve its much-vaunted liberty, fraternity and equality? In the fourth part of a series on Muslims in Europe, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
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Among Britain's 1.8 million Muslims, anxiety is growing over a sharp rise in what the British call Islamophobia. Post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorist legislation and proposals for even tougher measures have led to widespread disaffection, anger and isolation among Muslim youth. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
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The death of a Dutch filmmaker, at the hands of a suspected Muslim extremist, has Germans anxious that religious unrest will spread to their own country. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli continues a five-part series on Europe as the emerging battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
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In the Netherlands, the recent murder of controversial filmmaker Theo Van Gogh by a Muslim extremist has revealed a climate of mistrust and fear between Muslims and traditional Dutch society. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli begins a five-part series on Europe as the emerging new battlefield in the struggle to define Muslim identity.
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In an abrupt change of policy toward illegal immigrants, Italy has begun deporting hundreds of migrants back to Libya, immediately after their arrival on Italian shores. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
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Two Italian aid workers are released by their captors after being kidnapped and held hostage for three weeks. The women, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, were handed over to the Red Cross along with two Iraqi workers who were held with them. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
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With just six weeks left before November's presidential election, both parties are vying for the votes of overseas Americans. The Democratic Party has been particularly active in Italy, where as many as 200,000 Americans might vote. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports. -
Cultural observers in Greece say that by staging a successful Olympics, the nation's identity has changed, making it less burdened by the past and more confident in its capabilities. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports. -
In a last-minute change, Secretary of State Colin Powell cancels plans to attend the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games. U.S. and Greek officials say anti-American demonstrations in Greece had nothing to do with Powell's cancellation. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
