Rate My Professor Darra Hofman

Dr. Darra Hofman serves as Assistant Professor and MARA Program Coordinator in the School of Information at San José State University. She earned her Ph.D. in library, archival, and information studies from the University of British Columbia, where she conducted graduate research with InterPARES and Blockchain@UBC. Her dissertation, titled “Between Knowing and Not-Knowing: Recordkeeping at the Intersection of Privacy and Transparency,” received the 2021 ALISE/Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Competition Award. Hofman also holds an MSLS from the University of Kentucky, a J.D. from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and a B.A. (honors) from Arizona State University. A former attorney, she brings expertise in law and records to her academic role, having previously practiced before transitioning to academia following her doctoral studies.

Hofman’s research focuses on the interplay between privacy and transparency in digital records, particularly blockchain technologies, health data management, and the role of records in human rights and information governance. Her publications include “Mama's Baby, Daddy's Maybe: A State-by-State Survey of Surrogacy Laws and Their Disparate Gender Impact” (2009), “‘The margin between the edge of the world and infinite possibility’: Blockchain, GDPR and information governance” (2019), “Blockchain technology & recordkeeping” (2019), “Trust in the Balance: Data Protection Laws as Tools for Privacy and Security in the Cloud” (2017), and “Queer Privacy Protection: Challenges and the Fight within Libraries” (2023). She has presented on topics such as recordkeeping and human thriving, graphing context for privacy, and knowledge management in information-resilient societies at conferences including ASIS&T and ARMA International. At San José State University, her research interests span archival collections, archival description/RAD, archives and records centers, computer/information networks, copyright/intellectual property, information policy, intellectual freedom and censorship, law libraries, and records management. Hofman teaches in the MLIS and MARA programs, including courses on privacy, technology, and the law, and coordinates the MARA program to prepare students for roles in archives, records administration, and emerging information management fields through technical skills, critical analysis, and practical experiences.