Timothy Mitchell is a political theorist and historian who has written about colonialism, Middle East politics, economics, expert knowledge in the government of collective life, and the history and politics of energy. His previous books include Carbon Democracy, Rule of Experts, Questions of Modernity, and Colonising Egypt. His writings have been translated into many languages. He is the William B. Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University in New York.