Becoming Boundless: Indian Transnational Entrepreneurs in the Global Economy

Thu, September 24, 2026 12:00 PM at Berkey Hall Conference Room 4F

Dr. Manashi Ray is a Professor of Sociology at West Virginia State University. Her work examines international migration, transnational networks, and social inequality through a gendered lens. Drawing on frameworks such as migrant capital, Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital, and life course perspectives, her research explores how globalization and technology shape migratory processes, transnational practices, and refugee experiences across South and East Asia. Her scholarship has been published in leading journals including Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Economic and Political Weekly. She received her PhD in Sociology from Michigan State University.

Prof. Ray will present her new book Becoming Boundless (2026, Stanford University Press), which explores how Indian migrant entrepreneurs are reshaping India’s role in a twenty-first-century multipolar world. Drawing on a decade of ethnographic and archival research, Manashi Ray traces the transnational networks linking India, the United States, and beyond, showing how these connections fuel global capitalism. The book highlights how mobility across borders intersects with class, caste, and gender, asking whether migration reproduces inequality or creates new opportunities—especially for women in male-dominated sectors. By reframing migration as central to the making of transnational economic spaces, Ray reveals both their dynamism and their persistent hierarchies.