Mateo Nelson is a journalist, editor and freelance Arabic-to-English translator based in New York. He recently completed a joint Master’s degree in journalism and Near Eastern Studies at New York University. Before studying at NYU, he covered Syria for more than three years as an editor, reporter and translator at Syria Direct, a journalism nonprofit based in Amman, Jordan.
Mateo holds a BA in Near Eastern Studies with a concentration in Arabic language from Princeton University. He was a 2014-2015 Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) fellow in Amman and a 2019 journalism fellow with Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE). He is also a 2020 Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar Award Winner.
Mateo is originally from Montana. He speaks Levantine Arabic and has reported from Jordan, Lebanon, Germany and the United States. He lived in Jordan from 2014-2017 and has spent time in Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, the West Bank, Lebanon, Portugal and Oman.
