University of Duisburg-Essen
Humanities
Department of Anglophone Studies
Universitätsstr. 12
45141 Essen

Room: R12 S04 H02
Phone: +49 201 183 3500
E-mail: xandra.knappe@uni-due.de

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xandra-Knappe-2?ev=hdr_xprf

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xandra-knappe-48406a374/

ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1508-5207

Office Hours

For information on office hours, you need to make an appointment via the instructor’s Terminplaner. Please check your Course Syllabus, your Moodle, or get in touch via e-mail for the registration.

Since April 2025, Xandra Knappe works as a research and teaching assistant at the Chair of Prof. Dr. Birte Bös at the Department of Anglophone Studies. She obtained her BA and MA in English and Social Sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen, where she graduated with honours in 2024. She is now pursuing a PhD with the preliminary title: "From Platform to Parliament: The Discursive Construction of (Alt-)European Identity in the Digital Sphere". Her dissertation project centres on the discursive identity construction of Populist Radical Right European Parliament Members through the usage of the English language on the social media platforms X and Facebook.

• Critical Discourse Analysis
• Semiotics and (Post-)Structuralism
• Language, Power and Identity in Online and Offline Contexts
• Political Rhetoric and Populism
• Pragmatics
• Multimodality

Knappe, X. (November 11-13th, 2026) (forthcoming). Constructing (Alt-)European Identity Online: A Methodological Framework for Social Media Data Extraction and Critical Discourse Analysis. 31st LIPP Symposium: Digital Linguistics On- and Offline, Munich.

Knappe, X. (July 8-10th, 2026). Fabricating Factuality: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Facebook Posts of the Patriots for Europe Group. CADAAD, Valladolid, Spain.

Knappe, X. (May 18-20th, 2026). From Victimhood to Verbal Violence: The Mobilisation of Soldierly Masculinity by PRR Members of European Parliament in Digital Discourse. HEPP5, Helsinki, Finnland.

Knappe, X. (February 16-20th, 2026). The Significance of Empty Signifiers in the Digital Discourse of PRR European Parliament Members. AURORA Winter School: Identities in Europe in Times of Rising Populism. Blended Intensive Programme (BIP). Innsbruck, Austria.

Knappe, X. (November 24-28th, 2025). 3MT: Language in the Digital Arena: How Populist Posts Create Divides. Aurora Rising Voices: Emerging Scholars Forum. Blended Intensive Programme (BIP). Olomouc, Czech Republic.

Knappe, X. (September 2nd, 2025). Fighting the ‘Others’: Implications of Good versus Evil in the Portrayal of Migrants by Populist Radical Right Members of European Parliament on X. LinPin, Münster, Germany.

Knappe, X. (July 11-12th, 2025). Constructing Identity by Division: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the 2024 EU Elections on X. BAELc14, Bonn, Germany.

Ali, K., Antonopoulos, G., Gkampeta, P., Ilić, N., Knappe, X., Mohaqeq, A. & Saptarsha, S. (July 7-11th, 2025). COP30: From Brussels to Belém and Beyond: Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) and Resilient Infrastructure for All (RIA). ECPS Summer School 2025 on “Populism & Climate Change: Understanding What is at Stake and Crafting Policy Suggestions for Stakeholders”, Online. Case Competition Scenario, 2nd place.

Knappe, X. (November 21st, 2024). Right-wing populist Discourse on X: A Linguistic Analysis (Presentation of my MA thesis). UnderLinE Student Conference, Essen.

Knappe, X. (June 8th, 2026). “We want our country back”: The Populist Radical Right and the Nature Restoration Law of the EU. Online. Strategic Communication and Sustainability Issues in Populist Politics, Münster, Germany.

Knappe, X. (November 10th, 2025). Rechtspopulismus als ‘neue’ Herausforderung: Hillebrand, Camus, Perger und ein Vergleich der Europawahlen 2014 und 2024. Rechtspopulismus und Rechtsextremismus in Europa. Duisburg, Germany.

Knappe, X. (July 28th, 2025). Between "Us and Them": How the European Populist Radical Right Utilises Manichaeism within their Elite-Portrayal on X. Münster, Germany.

Knappe, X. & Bös, B. (accepted). “Maintaining Social Order Through Exclusion: Multimodal Impoliteness and LGBT+ Marginalisation in Radical Right Social Media”, In: Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira & Timéa Drinóczi (eds.), Law, Linguistics and the Far Right: International Perspectives on Verbal Attacks on Vulnerable Groups. Routledge.

Undergraduate

• Approaches to Morphology & Syntax / 2025, 2026
• Approaches to Phonetics & Phonology / 2025, 2026