Danielsen and Wishart Publish Two Articles on Racial Segregation in Omaha

Sabrina Danielsen, PhD, and Ryan Wishart, PhD, both faculty in the Department of Cultural and Social Studies, Sociology Program, co-authored two published articles adding to our knowledge of racial inequality and segregation in Omaha. Both articles use innovative location-based services data provided by a Spin Mobility Data for Safer Streets Initiative grant jointly awarded to Creighton’s Social Science Data Lab and the city of Omaha.

The first article, “Using Large-Scale Location Data to Examine Racial Diversity and Segregation in Church Attendees’ Home Neighborhoods” was published in June 2024 in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. This first article finds that many congregants in Omaha travel from homogenously white home neighborhoods on Sunday morning to worship with others also from homogenously white home neighborhoods.

The second article, “Driving Environmental Inequality: The Unequal Harms and Benefits of Highways,” was published in July 2024 in Environmental Sociology. This second article highlights inequalities in the planning, construction and operation of three prominent highway projects in different parts of Omaha and reveals how these historical processes led to modern-day environmental racial injustices. Modern-day drivers benefiting from mobility provided by highways negatively impacting Black and Hispanic neighborhoods are from disproportionately more White neighborhoods.