Vivian Chenxue Lu is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Rice University whose work focuses on the cultural politics of markets, transnational commerce, and diaspora. Her first book manuscript (in progress) traces the extensive commercial migration of Igbo Nigerian businessmen across the Middle East and Asia. Based on ethnographic and archival fieldwork primarily based in Nigeria, the project examines how these transnational south-south circuits are transforming social and economic life in Nigeria, with a focus on market formation, identity, and postcolonial economic sovereignty. Her research has been supported by sources such as the National Science Foundation and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.