The majority of her field work is centered in the Horn of Africa, with a primary focus on Ein Qashish, Israel and Eastern Ethiopia.
According to Hovers' article "The Exploitation of Plant Resources by Neanderthals in Amud Cave (Israel): The Evidence from Phytolith Studies,[2]" by measuring Phytolith preservation in the sediments of the Amud Cave, it was determined that Neanderthals used wood to build and fuel fires, while herbaceous plants were used for both bedding and food.
Hovers uses this study to dispute the previously held notion that the subsistence and mobility of pre-modern hunter-gatherers was primarily dependent on animal migrations.
[3] In 2016, Hovers' work drew renewed attention to a previous theory that the Levantine corridor was the primary land route used by early hominins to migrate out from Africa into Eurasia.
Through her discovery of Nubian Levallois cores in the Negev highlands of Israel, Hovers found evidence that early hominins had, at one point, migrated through that region.
In 2017, Hovers led the discovery of the remains of two Neanderthals, along with a set of stone tools and some animal bones, from the Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Ein Qashish in northern Israel.