Alicia García-Sierra

I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. My research sits at the intersection of social stratification and child development: I study how advantages and disadvantages are transmitted across generations, and how institutions like the family and the education system shape these processes. Methodologically, I work with quantitative methods, household panel data, and genetic data, with a particular focus on causally-oriented designs.

Before joining UC3M, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Life Course Research (LIVES), University of Lausanne. I hold a PhD in Sociology from the University of Oxford and Nuffield College, where I was a Clarendon Scholar. My dissertation, Uneven Pathways, examined three novel mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of (dis)advantages and won the 2024 ECSR Dissertation of the Year Prize. Before Oxford, I completed a Master’s in Research in Social Sciences at the Carlos III-Juan March Institute (IC3JM), where I held the Juan March Servera Scholarship.

My work has appeared in American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, European Sociological Review, Social Science Research, and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, among others.