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With keynote lecture by Professor Timothy Mitchell, Columbia UniversitySocial revolutions, civil war and crippling economic crises: what is going on in the Middle East and South Eastern Mediterranean? Are the revolutions and wars in Egypt, Syria or Libya connected to the economic crises in Greece, Italy or Cyprus? How do carbon resources and energy competition affect these tense social, economic and environmental inter-relations? What is the future of 'carbon democracy' and what are its geographic and political ramifications?Inspired by Timothy Mitchell's work Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, we would like to invite abstract submissions for papers that explore themes related to energy, political power, history and ideology in the broad area of the Middle East and South-Eastern Mediterranean. Starting with a keynote lecture by Timothy Mitchell entitled 'Carbon Democracy and the Corporate Future,' the two-day workshop aims to combine exploration of regional case-studies with critical analyses of power relationships, resources and the frailty or persistence of democratic practices. Specifically, the workshop - consisting of paper presentation and discussion - will interrogate how discourses of democracy are constructed on the basis of conditions that inevitably undermine its emancipatory premises, producing and reproducing, instead, economic inequality, environmental crisis, and tacit acceptance of systemic violence.In this direction, we welcome disciplinary engagements from, among others, anthropology, history, politics, and geography. Particularly we encourage contributions from PhD students and early career researchers, and we invite abstract submissions on themes including:War, religious identities and energyIdeology, national security and energyPolitical economy of energy in North AfricaA place of no 'energy': GazaCompeting and compliant: state, political power and corporationsLabour movement(s) and its relation to energy businessTransient lives: histories of work in the energy sectorAbstract deadline December 1st: please e-mail your abstracts to both Maria Kastrinou (maria.kastrinou@brunel.ac.uk) and Matteo Capasso (matteo.capasso@durham.ac.uk).We will let you know the outcome of our decision by December 12th.  Maria Kastrinou, Anthropology, Brunel University Matteo Capasso, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University