Mason Bright is a first-year master's student in The University of New Mexico Museum Studies Department. Her research interests include pre-Industrial Revolution food systems, Indigenous methodologies for museum collection stewardship, and the role material culture plays in the construction of national identity.

Growing up, Bright wished she could go on a field trip every day. The unique ecology and history of her home state of Michigan provided ample opportunities for her to learn about both the natural and human worlds.

Bright attended Kalamazoo Valley Community College, earning an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts, specializing in sociology and international relations. Mason then transferred to the University of Michigan (U-M) in Ann Arbor, MI, where she majored in History with minors in Museum Studies and Creative Writing. While at U-M, Mason conducted archival collection research with the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology and served as a collections intern at the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. Through her coursework, Bright became interested in the relationship between colonialism and museums as institutions and how to incorporate restorative practices within museum work. Bright graduated from U-M in 2024, receiving the Walter S. Tappan Award for Excellence in Museum Studies.

As an aspiring museum collections manager, Bright plans to work with historic cultural collections, specializing in coordinating repatriations and community building with historically colonized groups. At the University of Michigan, she was a peer facilitator with the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, which introduced her to interdisciplinary science communication. Bright looks forward to learning more about incorporating science communication with her work in museums.

Bright is enrolled in courses for her Master of Arts in Museum Studies at UNM. Her coursework centers around collections management and interdisciplinary research using museum collections.