Nadeesha Uyangoda (born 1993) is a Sri Lankan-Italian journalist, human rights activist and podcaster, whose work focuses on migration and identity. She is the author of L’unica persona nera nella stanza (The Only Black Person in the Room) and Corpi che contano (Bodies that Matter), as well as the host of the podcast Sulla razza (About Race). She has won multiple awards, including the Anima Prize for Literature.

Biography

Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1993,[1] Uyangoda fled the country with her family due to its civil war and arrived in Italy at the age of six.[2][3] Due to her own and her family's experience of Italy's immigration policies, Uyangoda has been outspoken on migrant rights.[2] She has called for second-generation Italian immigrants to be better represented at all levels of politics.[2] She is also seen as part of a movement of second-generation migrants that uses social media to add their experiences to public discourse.[4] Her writing focuses on migration and identity.[5][6]

Sulla razza (About Race)

In April 2020 she created the podcast Sulla razza (About Race), which focuses on racism, in particular translating and explaining the vocabulary used in Anglo-American contexts to discuss race.[3][7] This language gap is something that Uyangoda felt was holding back racial discourse in Italy.[3] One example she described is: "I’m a brown South Asian, but there’s no term for brown people in Italian. So far these language gaps, which often don’t convey just how multifaceted racism is, haven’t been filled by mainstream media."[3] Uyangoda co-hosts the podcast with Nathasha Fernando and Maria Catena Mancuso.[1] It has been described as part of a cohort of podcasts discussing race that emerged in Italy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic reducing opportunities for social interaction.[8]

L’unica persona nera nella stanza (The Only Black Person in the Room)

Uyangoda is the author of L’unica persona nera nella stanza (The Only Black Person in the Room),[1] which was published in Rome in 2021 by the publisher 66thand2nd.[4] This memoir examined Uyangoda's experiences of racism in Italy, and its style was described by Annarita Taronna as "an intimate process of translingualism" as the text uses Italian, English and Sinhala to convey cross-cultural meaning.[9] Taronna also compared it to works by Zadie Smith, Chimanda Ngozi Adichie and Taiye Selasi.[9] Critical theorist and author Genevieve Makaping described Uyangoda as one voice in a new generation of Italian writers reflecting contemporary racism, alongside Camilla Hawthorne, Espérance Hakuzwimana Ripanti, Angelica Pesarini, Djarah Kan and others.[10]

Selected works

  • L’unica persona nera nella stanza (The Only Black Person in the Room) - 2021[1]
  • Corpi che contano (Bodies that Matter) - 2024[11]

Awards

  • Premio Anima per la Letteratura (Anima Prize for Literature) – 2021[12]
  • Premio Rapallo Speciale “Anna Maria Ortese” (Anna Maria Ortese Rapallo Special Prize) – 2021[13]
  • Premio Sila nella sezione “Economia e Società” (Sila Prize for 'Economy and Society') – 2022[14]
  • Premio Giuditta esordiente (Giuditta Esordiente Award) – 2022[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Romeo, Caterina; Fabbri, Giulia (2024-08-16). Intersectional Italy. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-040-11208-3.
  2. ^ a b c D’Ignoti, Stefania (2025-02-18). "Can Culture, Not Blood, Make You Italian?". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  3. ^ a b c d Media, Common (2021-10-21). "In Europe, Podcasters of Color Make Their Own Space for Conversations on Race". Nieman Reports. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  4. ^ a b Centers and Peripheries in Romance Language Literatures in the Americas and Africa. BRILL. 2024-01-15. p. 409. ISBN 978-90-04-69113-1.
  5. ^ "Nadeesha Uyangoda Festival Ferrara". Internazionale (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  6. ^ Profeta, Daniele (2021). "Grand Tours and The Construction Of Italian Identities". Log (53): 103–108. ISSN 1547-4690. JSTOR 27157127.
  7. ^ Hernández, Felipe (2022-12-06). Ardeth #09: RACE. Exploring the Modern-Colonial Legacy in Contemporary Architecture. Rosenberg & Sellier. p. 6. ISBN 979-12-5993-107-8.
  8. ^ Sievers, Wiebke (2023-12-11). Cultural Change in Post-Migrant Societies: Re-Imagining Communities Through Arts and Cultural Activities. Springer Nature. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-3-031-39900-8.
  9. ^ a b Taronna, Annarita (2022-09-03). "Shaping translingual writing and translation as intersectional practices: Nadeesha Uyangoda's L'unica persona nera nella stanza and Sulla razza as case studies". Journal of Postcolonial Writing. 58 (5): 684–697. doi:10.1080/17449855.2022.2158357. ISSN 1744-9855.
  10. ^ Makaping, Geneviève (2023-01-13). Reversing the Gaze: What If the Other Were You?. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-1-9788-3470-5.
  11. ^ "Nadeesha Uyangoda e Giorgia Bernardini". Genova Palazzo Ducale – Fondazione per la cultura (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  12. ^ "PREMIO ANIMA 2021". Anima per il Sociale. 2022-10-10. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  13. ^ "Portale Trasparenza Città di Rapallo – Premio Speciale Giuria Anna Maria Ortese −37° Edizione del Premio Letterario Nazionale per la Donna Scrittrice Rapallo 2021". trasparenza.comune.rapallo.ge.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  14. ^ Riera, Enrica (2022-05-31). "Conclusa la decima edizione, Lagioia, Castellina e Uyangoda premiati a Palazzo Arnone". Premio Sila '49 (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  15. ^ "PREMIO LETTERARIO". www.soroptimist.it. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadeesha_Uyangoda
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