I am a writer and historian of science based in New York City. In 2026-2027, I will be a Sloan Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center's Leon Levy Center for Biography.
My upcoming book, SWEET CAPTIVITY, to be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, tells the story of Rosalía Abreu—a Cuban sugar heiress and forgotten foremother of modern primatology—and her extraordinary collection of apes. From her castle-like home in early twentieth-century Havana, Abreu helped launch a new era of medical and psychological research, as her apes became portals onto the origins and nature of humanity. Following a cast of human and nonhuman characters across boundaries of science, culture, and nation, the book recounts a vivid and intimate history of responses to an enduring question: what does it mean to be human?
I hold a Ph.D. in History from Yale University. My research has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Consortium for the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, and the Institute for Advanced Study. My first book, Culture in the Clinic: Miami and the Making of Modern Medicine, was a finalist for the Welch Medal, awarded by the American Association for the History of Medicine. I was also a recipient of Yale's John Addison Porter Prize.
My writing has appeared in the Washington Post and various academic journals, including Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, and Technology and Culture.
Send me a message at katie.m.mas (at) gmail (dot) com.
I am represented by Allison Devereux at Trellis Literary Management.