Rate My Professor Courtney Hofman

Courtney A. Hofman is the President’s Associates Presidential Professor and Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. She is Co-Director of the Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research and Research Affiliate in the Program in Human Ecology and Archaeobiology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Hofman identifies as a molecular anthropologist whose research examines human-microbe and human-wildlife interactions on temporal scales spanning millennia. Her work addresses the evolution of mammalian microbiomes, from pathogens to commensals, and explores human impacts on wildlife and environments to inform conservation. Employing genomics, proteomics, stable isotopes, archaeology, ecology, and evolution, her interdisciplinary and collaborative approach partners with biologists, managers, health professionals, anthropologists, and stakeholders. This applied research tackles present-day challenges including ecosystem restoration, wildlife conservation, disease ecology, and the ethics of biomolecular studies. Her interests include ancient DNA, microbiomes, historical ecology, coastal archaeology, translocations, zooarchaeology, conservation genetics, high-throughput DNA sequencing, bioinformatics, human-environment interactions, archaeogenomics, domestication, and science education.

Hofman earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Maryland in 2015, an M.A. in Applied Anthropology from the University of Maryland in 2011, and a B.S. in Biology and B.A. in Honors Anthropology from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. She joined the University of Oklahoma in 2016. Notable awards include the President’s Associates Presidential Professorship, Smithsonian Pre-doctoral Fellowship in 2012, and University of Maryland Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship in 2014-2015. Her scholarship, cited over 2,900 times on Google Scholar, features key publications such as “Forgotten fisheries, Indigenous communities, and the shifting baseline of global oyster harvest” (Nature Communications, 2022), “The evolution and changing ecology of the anthropoid primate oral microbiome” (PNAS, 2021), “Lessons from ancient pathogens” (Science, 2024), “To curate the molecular past, museums need a carefully designed future” (PNAS, 2019), and “Mitochondrial genomes suggest rapid evolution of dwarf California Channel Islands foxes” (PLOS One, 2015). Hofman teaches Molecular Anthropology, Introduction to Biological Anthropology, Plagues and People, and courses on dogs and human diversity. Her lab investigates island translocations, ancient dogs, dental calculus microbiomes, paleopathology, marine mammals, and Mesoamerican remains.