Vicky Fouka was born in 1986 and grew up in Athens.
She was admitted to the Department of International and European Economic Studies at the Athens University of Economics and Business, from which she graduated with honours in 2008. She continued her studies at Pompeu Fabra University with a scholarship from the State Scholarships Foundation, where she was awarded a PhD in Economics with distinction (cum laude) in 2015.
She then moved to the United States, where she joined the teaching staff at Stanford University as an assistant professor of Political Science. In 2023, she was elected associate professor.
Her research focuses on the factors that shape people’s social and political behaviour, with the aim, among other things, of drawing conclusions for the design of public policies. It is based on theoretical tools and methods from various social science disciplines, combining models of human behaviour from economics and social psychology. Its theoretical approaches are supported by statistical analysis of microdata, often covering long periods of time.
It has developed innovative methods for extracting information from historical data and measuring quantitatively difficult concepts, such as social and group identities. Her research explores the evolution of these concepts over time, how they are influenced by government policies, and their causal effect on social and political behaviours with significant impact, such as voting behaviour, choice of partner or place of residence, but also phenomena such as violence against members of other racial or ethnic groups.
A significant part of her scientific work focuses on the interaction of different human groups in the context of migration. Using microdata from the entire population of countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom over decades, she has studied how migration reshapes societies through various mechanisms, such as its impact on political divisions and interpersonal relations between social groups. In addition, her research has contributed to the systematic assessment of the political and social behaviour of immigrants, as well as how this – and consequently their social and economic integration in host countries – is causally influenced by different state policies.
Her scientific articles have been published in leading economics and political science journals and have won multiple awards for best scientific work. Her work has been covered by international media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Economist because of its implications for critical policy issues such as the development of strategies for immigrant integration.
She is married and has two children.