Claire joined the Department of European & International Studies as a PhD researcher in October 2021, interested in the different ways in which the populist radical right communicate antisemitism online and how this differs across social media platforms.

She is a recipient of the London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP), funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and is currently a LAHP student ambassador. She holds a BA in German and Russian from the University of Cambridge (2014-2018) and an MA in European Studies from KCL (2018-2019). Claire previously worked as a country risk analyst and investigative due diligence analyst, focusing on Russia and the Caucasus, in the private sector. 

Research interests 

• Populist radical right parties
• Memory politics
• Antisemitism
• Social media narratives and affordances

Office hours

Wednesday: 14.00-16.00

Teaching

4AAOB103 Introduction to Politics

PhD research

With the now-established visibility and electoral success of the contemporary populist radical right (PRR) in Western Europe, existing literature has examined these parties’ refutation of antisemitism in parallel to their continued allusion to antisemitic tropes, to greater and lesser extents.

This PhD thesis brings these two strands of literature together in a three-country, three-party, and two-platform analysis of the Facebook and X posts of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the National Rally (RN) in France, and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) between 2017 and early 2023.

First, this thesis uses elements of discourse-historical analysis and of populist “style” to contribute a framework of when Jewish inclusion and exclusion are acceptable to the parties. It demonstrates that the parties construct their ingroups as “victims”, and that Jews are included when this is strategically conducive or when Jewish victimhood does not threaten that of the non-Jewish majority.

Second, while existing literature on the PRR’s framing of Jews, Israel, and antisemitism has predominantly focused on party output, this thesis uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools and inductive qualitative analysis to analyse the comments left by users who engage with the parties’ posts. It contributes a novel framework of user victimhood, showing that users are not able to form a common identity with Jews when they see Jews as an Other (rejective), see Jewish victimhood as competing with their own (competitive), and perceive Jewish victimhood as an accusation of antisemitism (defensive).

Despite this, a third contribution of this research is an examination of user responses to antisemitic code words, such as “globalists”, and a conclusion that only rarely are these overtly understood and escalated by users.

PhD supervisors

Dr Katrin Schreiter and Dr Isabelle Hertner

Latest publications

Burchett, C. (2025) Of the people and the elite? The strategic framing of Jews, antisemitism, and Israel by the AfD and the FPÖ. Party Politics. https://doi.org/10.1177/13540688251358140

Burchett, C. (2023, December 13). Why did a far-right MP take a fire extinguisher to a Jewish menorah just as Poland’s new government was being voted into power? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-did-a-far-right-mp-take-a-fire-extinguisher-to-a-jewish-menorah-just-as-polands-new-government-was-being-voted-into-power-219789#comment_2952611

Burchett, C. (2023). [Review of the book Antisemitism on Social Media, ed. By Monika Hübscher and Sabine von Mering]. Patterns of Prejudice, 57(1-2), 103-105.

Burchett, C. (2022, December 8). What is the Reichsbürger movement accused of trying to overthrow the German government? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-reichsburger-movement-accused-of-trying-to-overthrow-the-german-government-196233

Burchett, C., & Barth, J. (2022, April 14). How the European Far Right is using Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine to Radicalise its Audience. GNET. https://gnet-research.org/2022/04/14/how-the-european-far-right-is-using-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-to-radicalise-its-audience/

Media

Seibt, Sébastien. (2024). Autriche : Herbert Kickl, ou le triomphe de l'extrême droite décomplexée. France 24. https://www.france24.com/fr/europe/20240930-autiche-herbert-kickl-ou-le-triomphe-de-l-extr%C3%AAme-droite-d%C3%A9complex%C3%A9e

Hess, Amandine. (2024). Dissoudre les partis d'extrême droite, un pari risqué ? Euronews. https://fr.euronews.com/2024/02/01/dissoudre-les-partis-dextreme-droite-un-pari-risque

Seibt, Sébastien. (2024). "Remigration", manifestations : le scandale de trop pour l'AfD ? France 24. https://www.france24.com/fr/europe/20240122-remigration-manifestations-le-scandale-de-trop-pour-l-afd

Brian, A., & Dobson, P. (Hosts). (2023). For Fact’s Sake podcast: How did conspiracy theorists lead to an attempted coup in Germany? [Audio podcast]. https://theferret.scot/for-facts-sake-reichsburger-conspiracy-coup-germany/