Chara's research interests lie in the area of criminal law, and she is particularly interested in the intersection between crime and technology. She has a particular expertise in hate crime and hate speech, and her current focus is on the regulation of online hate, and on the liability of social media companies.
Her work has been cited extensively in a number of law reform projects relating to hate crime and online communications such as by the Law Commission and Lord Bracadale's reform of hate crime law in Scotland. She was a member of Judge Marrinan's Core Expert Group as part of his review of Northern Irish hate crime legislation, and led on issues relating to online hate speech. She has also completed a number of projects for the Council of Europe including ones based in Armenia and Bosnia. Her work has been cited in various Parliamentary Reports, and she has given oral evidence before the Parliamentary Petitions Committee on the Inquiry into Tackling Online Abuse. She is regularly consulted by various law reform and governmental bodies both nationally and internationally for her expertise on hate speech.
From 2019-2021, she was Head of Social Sciences Research at the Ethical AI Institute based at Oxford Brookes.
She is an AHRC Peer Reviewer and is the national reporter for Hate Speech for the British Association of Comparative Law (BACL).
She has appeared on Radio 4's the Long View and File on Four.