Thomas Bourke was born in 1962 in Dublin, Ireland. He studied Modern History at University College Dublin before joining the European University Institute in 1991 as a researcher in the Department of Political and Social Sciences. At the EUI, he specialised in International Political Economy under the supervision of Susan Strange. His doctoral research focused on relations between Japan and the European Community, particularly trade, politics and foreign direct investment policy. He completed his PhD at the EUI in 1995.
Before joining the EUI, Bourke pursued an international career in the antiquarian book, print and map trade in London and New York for approximately six years. He subsequently spent a year in Tokyo, Japan, teaching business English to the banking sector.
Following completion of his doctorate, Bourke worked as a research assistant to Professor Susan Strange in 1995 and 1996 and prepared his doctoral thesis for publication. He later returned to the EUI to contribute to a new postdoctoral programme at the Robert Schuman Centre and to work with the EUI Library on databases and electronic information resources. At the end of 1999, he became a Library Information Specialist in Economics.
In this role, Bourke worked between the Library and the EUI's academic departments, providing specialist research services and developing the Institute's data and economics collections, and later its broader social sciences collections. His work accompanied the transition from CD-ROM and DVD-based statistical resources to online databases and digital collections.