The University at Buffalo’s Philosophy, Politics, and Economics faculty have won a $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation for an innovative project that brings philosophy together with community engagement in order to learn about the relationship between immigration and local democratic culture.

Led by philosopher Alexandra Oprea, the project, “Inclusive Immigration and Democratic Revival in a Rust Belt City,” aims to “test whether new immigrants and refugees create the opportunity for democratic revival and… identify promising innovations that could be further developed and shared with other communities,” according to a press release from the university.

It will do so by looking at three different settings in the Buffalo area: a market context, with Buffalo’s West Side Bazaar; a cultural context, with Buffalo’s museums; and a civic context, working with partner advocacy organizations. In each they’ll meet with community members, interview community leaders, and host events  with local organizations, generating “empirical and qualitative information for how new arrivals shape and potentially strengthen essential components of democracy at the local level.”

Professor Oprea says, “Buffalo can serve as an important test case for other cities. It’s precisely Buffalo’s willingness to embrace immigration that we hypothesize is creating the new opportunities we’re seeing in places that were previously in decline.”

Working with Oprea on the grant are philosophy faculty Justin Bruner, David Gray, Ryan Muldoon, Alexander Schaefer, and political science professor Jacob Neiheisel. The grant will support the project for three years. You can learn more about it here.