Chiara’s dissertation explores the complex relations among the people who occupy the intertwined realms of crime, the state, and business in the Indian state of West Bengal. In this context, Chiara’s thesis centers on an ethnographic analysis of the daily experiences of what she calls “mafia labourers”, and how dispossessed farmers and fishermen navigate environmental inequalities and new hierarchies based on class, caste, religion, and gender. Her work advances the concept of the mafiazation of land to illuminate how deeply interwoven relations reconfigure the way land is acquired, managed, and built upon in West Bengal today. Chiara argues that the dynamic of the mafiazation of land reinscribes colonial forms of rent, usury, and labour exploitation into contemporary India. By foregrounding the perspectives of those who don’t have easy access to lucrative lands, profits, or green infrastructures in West Bengal, Chiara’s dissertation thus expands our understanding of the unequal structures and functioning of criminal political economies in South Asia.
Trial lecture
Designated topic: How does examining the political economy of land dispossession provide a new lens on the relationship between legality and illegality—specifically in relation to what is often termed “the criminalization of politics”—and how does this dynamic unfold in South Asia?
Chiara Arnavas successfully defended her thesis on 13 January 2026.
Evaluation committee
- Associate Professor Kasia Paprocki, London School of Economics and Political Science (first opponent)
- Associate Professor Jatin Dua, University of Michigan (second opponent)
- Professor Heidi Østbø Haugen, University of Oslo (committee administrator)
Chair of the defence
Supervisors
- Professor Arild Engelsen Ruud, University of Oslo
- Associate Professor Michael Levien, Johns Hopkins University