Rate My Professor Alexandra Oprea

Alexandra Oprea is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo, where she joined the faculty in 2023. She holds a PhD from Duke University. Her areas of specialization encompass politics, philosophy, economics, PPE, democratic theory, normative ethics, social epistemology, and social and political philosophy. Oprea's research centers on the intersection of politics, philosophy, and economics, with a particular emphasis on democracy and education and the ways in which they inform and constrain each other. She explores critical questions of electoral design, such as whether voting should be voluntary or compulsory, appropriate voting age thresholds, ballots with multiple choices, and proportional versus majoritarian representation. Her scholarship also evaluates criteria for electoral institutions based on voters’ education, information, and competence, as well as civic education and the principles governing just education systems. She draws extensively from the history of philosophy, especially the early modern period.

Oprea has authored numerous publications in leading journals. Key works include “A minimal standard of democratic competence” (with Daniel J. Stephens) in Politics, Philosophy & Economics (2024); “Moving toward the Median: Compulsory Voting and Political Polarization” (with Lucy Martin and Geoffrey Brennan) in American Political Science Review (2024); “Nudges, Regulations, and Liberty” (with Keith Dowding) in British Journal of Political Science (2023); “Adam Smith on Political Judgment: Revisiting the Political Theory of Wealth of Nations” in Journal of Politics (2022); “Inadequate for Democracy: How (Not) to Distribute Education” in Politics, Philosophy & Economics (2020); and “Counterproductive Altruism: The Other Heavy-Tail” (with Daniel Kokotajlo) in Philosophical Perspectives (2020). She teaches courses including Political Philosophy and Global Justice. Oprea serves as principal investigator on a $500,000 Mellon Foundation grant for the project “Inclusive Immigration and Democratic Revival in a Rust Belt City” in the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program.