Graff's emphasis on literature as rational statement bears comparison with the theories of Yvor Winters, his professor at Stanford in the 1960s.
Graff is also the founder of Teachers for a Democratic Culture, an organization dedicated, in their words, to "combating conservative misrepresentations" of college pedagogy.
Graff coined the term "teach the controversy" in his college courses in the 1980s and later set the idea in print in his 1993 book Beyond The Culture Wars.
Graff's thesis was that college instructors should teach the conflicts around academic issues so that students may understand how knowledge becomes established and eventually accepted.
He teaches writing courses with his wife, Cathy Birkenstein, who is a lecturer in English and received her Ph.D. in American literature.