dr. Nana de Graaff

My research interests are in the field of International Relations and International Political Economy, the evolving relationship between China and the West, in particular from the perspective of economic and political elites and networks. I also study US foreign policy and elite networks, and the (geo)politics of the energy industry.

I am chair of the China in Europe Research Network (CHERN).originally funded as a COST Action. I also serve as an Executive Council Member of SASE (Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics) and a co-organiser of Network Q: Asian capitalisms, I am editorial board member of the Routledge RIPE series in Global Political Economy, an International Advisory Board member of International Affairs (Oxford University Press/Chatham House) and of the journal The International Spectator (Taylor & Francis). 

Grants and Research Projects

Currently I am PI of a Vidi research project: Globalization Unravelling? The Geopolitics of Europe-China Technological Decoupling, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO, VI.Vidi.221R.038) which analyses how US-China rivalry over strategic technologies unfolds and impacts the EU and European political economies in their tech relations with China. More on the project and the ReGlobe team can be found here: https://www.re-globe.eu/

I obtained an EU COST Action grant: China in Europe Research Network (CHERN) (2019-2023), with which I have established a Europe wide knowledge network on China aimed at pooling, exchanging, disseminating and generating research on Chinese socio-economic engagements with Europe. 

I was co-Principal Investigator in an ESRC (UK) funded project (2019-2022) 'Fraying Ties? Networks, Territory and Transformation in the UK oil sector.’ An interdisciplinary research project led by Prof. Gavin Bridge (Durham University) in collaboration with London School of Economic (LSE) and Platform. 

I have also been a co-investigator in the Corporate Mapping Project, a SSHRC funded research-project aimed at systematically mapping the structure and influence of the fossil fuel industry in Canada led by Prof. William Carroll (Victoria University).

And previously I was part of a Sino-Dutch research project (2013-2017) on the Transnationalization of China’s Oil Industry funded by Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Social Sciences (KNAW), directed by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and International Institute for Asia Studies (Leiden University).

I obtained my doctoral degree in Political Science (cum laude/with distinction) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2013, and also received my MSc-degree International Relations there in 2006. Previously, studied Political Science at the Free University in Brussels.

I teach or have taught courses at BSc and MSc level in:

• International Relations and Global Governance
• Transnational Political Economy
• Global Political Economy
• International Security
• Model UN
• Academic Writing
• Supervision master theses and research papers

Between 2019-2023 I was Director of Studies for the Bachelor and Master in Political Science, at VU Amsterdam.

2023 - Nomination Faculty Senior Research Award - Faculty of Social Sciences, VU Amsterdam

2018 - Individual Talent Grant - Institute for Societal Resilience, VU Amsterdam. 

2018 - Nominated by students for Frank van der Duyn Schouten award, best senior lecturer in Political Science 

2016 - Best Junior Lecturer of the Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam.

2015 - Research Fellowship of the Dept. of Political Sciences & Public Administration, VU University Amsterdam.

2013 - Faculty Dissertation Prize, Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam.

2013 - Best Lecturer in Political Science, VU University Amsterdam (selected by students).

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