Maximilian Graf is a Visiting Scholar from the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Historical Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He specializes in Cold War Studies and the History of Communism. In November/December 2013, he was chercheur associée at the Centre Marc Bloch in Berlin. In 2014, he received the Karl von Vogelsang Prize – Austrian State Prize for the History of Social Sciences, and in 2015 the Dr.-Alois-Mock-Wissenschaftspreis. In September 2017, he will start a new position at the European University Institute in Florence. At the moment, he is working on a book with the working title Overcoming the Iron Curtain. A New History of Détente in Cold War Central Europe.

Graf's most recent publications include his first book on Austrian–East German relations during the Cold War Österreich und die DDR 1949–1990. Politik und Wirtschaft im Schatten der deutschen Teilung (Vienna: ÖAW, 2016); the edited volumes Franz Marek. Beruf und Berufung Kommunist. Lebenserinnerungen und Schlüsseltexte (Vienna: Mandelbaum, 2017); Österreich im Kalten Krieg. Neue Forschungen im internationalen Kontext (Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2016); Orient & Okzident. Begegnungen und Wahrnehmungen aus fünf Jahrhunderten (Vienna: Neue Welt Verlag 2016, ²2017); and numerous articles and book chapters, including: together with Wolfgang Mueller, "An Austrian mediation in Vietnam? The superpowers, neutrality, and Kurt Waldheim’s good offices," in the Sandra Bott/Jussi Hanhimaki/Janick Schaufelbuehl/Marco Wyss (eds.) book Neutrality and Neutralism in the Global Cold War. Between or within the blocs?, (London: Routledge, 2016), 127–143; "(Kalter) Krieg am Bergisel. Skispringen im Spannungsfeld von Politik, Sport und Nation: Österreich und die DDR als Fallbeispiele," in Zeitgeschichte 42 (2015) 4, 215–232; "The Rise and Fall of 'Austro-Eurocommunism'. On the 'Crisis' within the KPÖ and the Significance of East German Influence in the 1960s," in the Journal of European Integration History 20 (2014) 2, 203–218.