Dr Graf’s research engages the intersection of international theory, (the legacies of) imperialism and international law. Her work examines mobilisations of normative universals in arguments about order, justice and the legitimacy of violence in international politics set against (post-)colonial contexts. Her most recent project critiques the relationship between political time and international law in German arguments against reparations for colonial genocide.

Her monograph The Humanity of Universal Crime (Oxford University Press, 2021) analyses the elemental idea that an act injures all of humanity in the history of international thought in the context of Europe’s (post-)imperial politics. The book won the International Studies Association's International Ethics Book Award and the European Consortium for Political Research's Political Theory Award. It also earned Honorable Mention for the Robert L. Jervis and Paul W. Schroeder Best Book Award from the International History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association in 2022. Reviews of her book are published or forthcoming in Perspectives on Politics, Political Theory, Diplomatica, Law, Culture and the Humanities, Intellectual History Review, History of Political Thought, Contemporary Political Theory, the Journal of Genocide Research and the Leiden Journal of International Law.

Her single-authored, peer-reviewed articles have been published in the American Journal of Political Science, International Theory, Law, Culture and the Humanities, Political Theory as well as International Relations. She is currently at work on a project that examines the relationship between nature and universal value in Unesco's World Heritage regime.

Dr Graf holds numerous teaching awards, including LSE's Excellence in Education Award. She has convened lectures and seminars in the areas of International Relations Theory, Colonial Modernity, Human Rights and the Laws of War.