Italian writer Shirin Ramzanali Fazel in conversation with Loredana Polezzi, Alfonse M. D’Amato Chair in Italian American and Italian Studies in the European Languages, Literatures and Cultures Department.

Introductory remarks by Simone Brioni/ENG; Chaplin Sanaa Nadim; Hodan Hassan, Assistant Dean of Advancement.

Zoom Registration is required for this event. Registration deadline March 2. Please click here to register.

In this conversation, author Shirin Ramzanali Fazel will talk about her latest book, Scrivere di Islam. Raccontare la diaspora (Writing About Islam. Narrating a Diaspora), a meditation on our multireligious, multicultural, and multilingual reality. Scrivere di Islam gathers Shirin’s reflections about her experience as a Muslim Italian woman who has lived in Italy and the United Kingdom. Shirin portrays her daily life, including her experience of religious and racist discrimination.  This book is the result of a personal and collaborative exploration of the necessity to rethink national culture and identity in a more diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist way. Looking at school textbooks, newspapers, TV programs, and sharing her own personal experience, Shirin’s work invites us to change the way Muslim immigrants are narrated and represented.

Shirin Ramzanali Fazel is an Italian writer of Somali and Pakistani origin. Her novel Far from Mogadishu is considered a milestone of Italian postcolonial literature and it describes her experience of migration to Italy and the effects of Italian colonialism in her native country. Shirin’s second novel Clouds over the Equator deals with the issue of meticciato and race discrimination, a crude legacy of the Italian colonial government. She is the author of two books of poetry, Wings and I Suckled Sweetness. Her latest publications include the book Scrivere di Islam. Raccontare la diaspora (Writing About Islam. Narrating a Diaspora) which was published with Ca’ Foscari Edizioni in 2020.

This event is made possible by funding from the Presidential Mini-Grants for Departmental Diversity and HISB, and is organized by the English Department in collaboration with the Islamic Society and the Muslim Student Association at Stony Brook University.