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.
-
President Trump has blasted establishment politicians as he travels through Europe. In the "Barbershop," Michel Martin asks NPR correspondents if his populist messaging is affecting European politics.
-
Meet Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has emerged as a powerful hard-liner driving tough anti-immigration stances in Italy's new government. -
Sketches on the walls of a once hidden room of a museum in Florence help shed light on the Renaissance artist's creative process — and on a mysterious and dangerous period in his life. -
Italy's president has consented to allow two populist parties to form a governing coalition. But the arrangement has left some watchers worried about the potential consequences for Europe.
-
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League have joined forces — a move that has investors and the European Union on edge over promises for a referendum on the eurozone. -
At heart is a power struggle between politicians who want Italy to remain a member of the European Union and the winners of March elections — Euroskeptic populists. Italy's president vetoed a populist coalition meaning fresh elections may need to be called.
-
Furious over President Sergio Mattarella's rejection of the populist coalition's euroskeptic pick for economic minister, 5-Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio called for Mattarella's impeachment.
-
The two largest parties — the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the League, a right-wing alliance — have been in two months of fruitless talks. -
NewsNow there's a new spectacle where visitors can feast their eyes on every detail of Michelangelo's masterpieces, with high-definition projections, actors, acrobats and music. -
In a public letter, Francis says he misjudged the situation surrounding Chile's Bishop Juan Barros, who has been accused of helping cover up abuse.
