Carmen is a lecturer in Middle East Studies Education and researcher specialising in Middle East Studies pedagogy, Islamic Studies, and Middle East politics. She is also a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in Oriental Studies at Sapienza University of Rome. Her academic journey led her to Egypt and Tunisia, where she lived and studied both during and in the aftermath of the 2011 Uprisings, which continue to be her primary areas of research interest.

Before joining King’s, Carmen earned her PhD from the University of Otago in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her doctoral work and forthcoming book examines the change capacity of the Party of al-Nahda Movement and the Egyptian Muslim Brothers, unpacking their organisational dynamics in the post-Uprisings period (2011–2020).

During her doctoral studies, Carmen took part in a funded research project titled "Fostering cross-cultural education" in which she explored the educational potential of internationalisation initiatives for Middle East Studies education in Western learning contexts.

Carmen’s current research focuses on how new forms of authoritarian practices impact protest movements’ positioning in Tunisia.

Carmen's qualifications include:

• PhD in Politics of the Middle East from the University of Otago (2022)
• Master's Degree in Oriental Studies from Sapienza University of Rome (2017)
• Bachelor's Degree in Oriental Studies from the University of Rome (2013)

Research interests

• Politics and Religion in the MENA region
• Conflicts & security
• Youth politics
• Middle East Studies pedagogy

Carmen’s research profile is available on:

• Google Scholar
• ORCID

Publications

Articles

• Fulco, C. & Bushra, M., 2025. An organizational perspective on fading system-ness: Insights from Ennahda’s post-specialization period (2016–2021). Politics and Religion, 1(28).
• Fulco, C. & Abdelgawad, D. S., 2024. A movement in exile: the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s survival action frames in the post-coup era (2013–2023). The Journal of North African Studies, 2(1), pp. 1-32.
• Fulco, C. & Tatarević, D., 2024. Subaltern-centred Pedagogy: Field Notes and Reflections from Tunisia. Protest (Brill), 4(1), pp. 85-97.
• Fulco, C. & Giampaolo, M., 2023. The Neoliberal Cage: Alternative Analysis of the Rise of Populist Tunisia. Middle East Critique, 32(1), pp. 27-52.
• Fulco, C. & Goldsmith, L., 2023. Internationalizing Middle Eastern Politics (MEP): A Study of the Educational Potential of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) for Middle East Politics Pedagogy. Journal of Political Science Education, pp. 1-18.
• Sebei, H. & Fulco, C., 2022. Rethinking the legacy of Tunisian pact-making in the post-July 2021 order. The Journal of North African Studies, pp. 1-40.

Book chapters

• Fulco, C., 2025. A Stalled Change Process: The Case of the Party of Ennahda Movement. In: S. Magued & A. Erdoğan, eds. Political Islam at Crossroads: Resilience and Adaptation in the Contemporary Middle East. London, UK: I.B. Tauris, pp. 97-120.

Teaching

• Conflict and Coexistence in Divided Societies (PG)
• Political Violence, Counterterrorism and Human Rights (PG)
• Religion and Politics of the Middle East (UG)