Brightman is a Masters candidate at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He holds an Honors degree in English & Communication (2018) with Midlands State University, Zimbabwe; an Honors in Critical Diversity Studies (2020) and Masters in Critical Diversity Studies (2021) with Wits University. He worked briefly as a high school English language & Literature in English teacher in Zimbabwe between 2018 and 2019.

Brightman’s research nurses a sustained interest in everyday forms of power punctuating the existence and survivability of transnational migrants both in sending and receiving countries. His current Masters research focuses on the obsolescence of Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) and the subsequent ’12-month period of grace’. The research is located in the circles of governance, mobility and temporality with a focus on how the ‘grace period ‘ impacts on Zimbabwean migrants’ identities and subjectivities.