Rachel Hurwitz

DPhil Student

St John's College

Rachel is a biological anthropologist studying under the supervision of Thomas Püschel. Broadly, she is interested the ways bones can provide insights into modern human and primate adaptations, as well as help reconstruct the lives of our ancestors. Specifically, her DPhil project focuses on whether and how lateralized behaviours impact the structure of hand morphology across the primate order, with a particular focus on our closest living relatives, the great apes. She has a background in human anatomy and worked in clinical research at Michigan Medicine for four years before coming to Oxford for her MSc.

Research Interests: osteology, primatology, paleoanthropology, laterality, handedness, anatomy, hominin evolution

Previous Education:
MSc in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford (2023)
BS in Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Michigan (2018)

Selected Publications: 

• Bipedalism and brain expansion explain human handedness, Püschel TA, Hurwitz RM, Venditti C. (2026) "Bipedalism and brain expansion explain human handedness." PLOS Biology 24(4): e3003771. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003771

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3403-9056

BlueSky: @rachel-hurwitz.bsky.social