METU (Ankara) and ELIAMEP (Athens) are coorganizing a workshop on political parties and public policies in Southern Europe with particular emphasis on Greece, Italy and Turkey which is going to take place in March 2009 in Florence and Montecatini Terme, Italy. The directors of the workshop are Attila Eralp, Professor International Relations (METU, Ankara) and Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos, Ass. Professor of Political Science (ELIAMEP and University of Athens).

The workshop, which bears the number Workshop no. 19, is competitive and presupposes a selection of participants on the basis of applications (i.e., paper abstracts). The workshop is convened in the context of the “Mediterranean Meetings 2009”, which is a set of loosely connected social science and humanities workshop, focusing on the Mediterranean (including North Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Mediterranean, Southern and Southeastern Europe). Such workshops take place annually with different topics, last for approximately a week, and are under the auspices and the supervision of the European University Institute (EUI, Florence), which funds the “Mediterrenaean Meetings”.

The deadline for the submission of paper proposals is 1 September 2008.

Applications can only be submitted on-line to the European University Institute through the electronic application form available on the above mentioned web address. Young academics, Ph.D. candidates who are nearing the completion of their theses, post-doctoral fellows, and researchers are encouraged to apply by visiting the above web address and sending an application not to the co-organizing institutions(METU and ELIAMEP), but directly to the European University Institute which has the final responsibility for the workshop.

Expenses are not covered by ELIAMEP. There is partial coverage of expenses by the local organizing committee of the EUI in Florence.

Applicants should take note of the information provided by the EUI in the same website on the financial terms, conditions and opportunities for those applicants whose papers will be selected for presentation in the workshop.

Participants who will be selected to participate in the workshop will have to submit the final version of their paper by 15 January 2008. This will enable the MRM team to review and publish all papers on the MRM web in February 2009. Consequently the participants will be able to access and read the papers before the Meeting.

Young academics and researchers, who are political scientists, political economists, sociologists or social anthropologists, with an interest in public policies, political parties, and domestic politics in Greece, Turkey and/or Italy, are encouraged to apply. Although comparative papers will be generally preferred, individual country cases studied in comparative perspective are also relevant to this workshop.