Omer Ali, an assistant professor in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Economics, was selected as a Russell Sage Foundation visiting scholar for the 2026-27 academic year, which he will spend in residence at the foundation’s New York City headquarters.
The Russell Sage Foundation supports social science research aimed at improving social and living conditions in the United States. Ali’s project will examine how federal mortgage programs shaped residential segregation in the mid-20th century.
Using mortgage records from county and state archives across the country, Ali and his collaborators have assembled one of the most comprehensive datasets of federally insured mortgages to date to study patterns of neighborhood formation.
Learn more about Ali and his project on the foundation’s website.