Dr Jess Shahan

Biography and Teaching Experience:

I joined the School of History, Politics and International Relations at the University of Leicester in 2019. As a Teaching Fellow in International Relations, I teach on a wide range of modules in Politics and IR. I currently convene the third-year module on the Politics of Nuclear Weapons, the MA module on US Foreign Policy, and the first-year module Order and Disorder: International Relations 1989 to the Present. My teaching portfolio also includes supervising a variety of dissertation topics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including through our Distance Learning degrees.

In 2023, I became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I was selected as a finalist for the Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Leicester Citizens' Awards in 2023, as a co-convenor of the team that ran the HyPIR Cuban Missile Crisis event in November 2022.

Research Interests and Academic Background:

My current research centres on experiences within the intelligence sector. I look at the role of intelligence organisations as employers, gender in intelligence work, and the use of first-person sources in intelligence history.

I earned my PhD in International Politics at Aberystwyth University in Wales with my thesis Spying Gender: Women in British Intelligence 1969-1994. My doctoral studies were supported by a Doctoral Career Development Scholarship from Aberystwyth University. While at Aberystwyth, I also taught in the Department of International Politics, worked as an exam invigilator, and was an academic subject tutor the International English Centre.

I earned an MA in Women's and Gender History from the University of Nottingham, as part of a two-year Erasmus degree that included studies at the Central European University (Hungary) and a brief period at Sofia University (Bulgaria). My master's degree was supported by a fellowship from the Central European University. My undergraduate degree is in History with a minor in Gender Studies from the University of North Florida, where I was supported by a Presidential Scholarship and a member of the university's Honors College. 

My current research interests include:

• Women’s and gender history
• Intelligence organisations and their history (with emphasis on the latter half of the 20th century)
• Gender, labour, and employment
• The role of memoirs and the public sharing of experiences in shaping perceptions of intelligence work
• Contemporary intelligence organisations and diversity within intelligence employment

Scholarly Publications

Shahan, J., (2021) “‘Don’t keep mum’: critical approaches to the narratives of women intelligence professionals”, Intelligence and National Security, 36:4, 569-583. DOI: 10.1080/02684527.2021.1893077

Shahan, J., (2019) “Spying gender: women in British intelligence 1969-1994”, PhD thesis, Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University.  https://pure.aber.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/spying-gender(8124a3cd-4f7c-42f7-91d0-fe222500f55e).html

Book Reviews and Related Contributions

Shahan, J. (2024) "Roundtable Review: Liza Mundy, The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA", in the H-Diplo/Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum, 16:18, 13-17. https://issforum.org/to/jrt16-18

Shahan, J. (2016) “Book Review: David Burke, The Spy Who Came in From the Co-op: Melita Norwood and the Ending of Cold War Espionage”, Intelligence and National Security, 31:3, 452-454. DOI: 10.1080/02684527.2015.1008211

Link to my Google Scholar Profile

I have supervised a range of undergraduate and master's level dissertations in topics within or connected to politics and international relations. Example areas: 

• Gender (current issues, political representation)
• Intelligence and/or military studies
• Terrorism and counterterrorism
• US Foreign Policy
• Media (including traditional and new media, social media)
• Memoirs and personal narratives
• SDGs and development; health policy
• Post-Cold War international order

2024-25 Academic Year Teaching:

• PL1016 Order and Disorder: International Relations 1989 to the Present *
• PL2021 Sex and Gender in Global Politics
• PL2095 Political Analysis: Understanding political science research and preparing for your dissertation
• PL3129 The Politics of Nuclear Weapons *
• PL7076 U.S. Foreign Policy: Themes and Controversies *

* Modules I am convening this academic year.

Previous teaching contributions:

• PL1016 Order and Disorder: International Relations 1989 to the Present
• PL1116 Case Studies in Post-Cold War (Dis-)order
• PL1013 The Politics and Government of the USA
• PL2019 The Making of Contemporary US Foreign Policy
• PL2021 Sex and Gender in Global Politics
• PL2094 and PL2095 Political Analysis
• PL3129 The Politics of Nuclear Weapons
• PL7076 US Foreign Policy
• PL7161 Post-Cold War World Order
• DL-PL7503 Gender in Global Perspective
• DL-PL7508 Post-Cold War World Order

I am a member of the following organisations:

• British International History Group (BIHG)
  • I am currently the PGR/ECR representative on the committee, and have been a committee member of the BIHG in various roles since 2016. 
• Women's Intelligence Network (WIN)
• North American Society for Intelligence History (NASIH)
• British International Studies Association (BISA)
• International Studies Association (ISA)

Recent Achievements:

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2023)
• University of Leicester Citizens' Awards Finalist in Teaching Excellence (2023)

Previous Awards:

• Doctoral Career Development Scholarship, Aberystwyth University (3 years)
• Partial Fellowship, Central European University (2 years)
• Presidential Scholarship, University of North Florida (4 years)

Previous Conference Papers:

• 'An equal opportunity to spy? Employment legislation and sex discrimination in the intelligence sector in the 1960s and 1970s', presented at the British International History Group, 32nd Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh, 6 September 2024.
• 'Can the spy novel be rescued from the men?: Women’s authorship in insider spy fiction', presented at the International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention (virtual panel) 29 March 2022.
• 'The Nameless Club: MI5’s Women and First World War Memory’, presented at the British International History Group (BISA), 28th Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh, 8 September 2016.
• 'Women’s Revolts, Mumsnet and the Intelligence and Security Committee: Creating a History of Women’s Employment in MI5’, The British International History Group, University of Kent, 10 September 2015. 
• 'Studying the Spies: Researching women’s employment in British Intelligence’, CIISS 7th Biennial Conference on Intelligence, Public Confidence and Security, Aberystwyth University, 4 June 2015.
• 'Writing controversial memoirs: Examining key debates on intelligence memoirs in the United Kingdom’, The British International History Group, The London School of Economics and Political Science, 6 September 2014.
• 'Women in Intelligence: A case study on researching personal histories within the British Security Services’, War and Intelligence Studies: Challenges for the 21st Century, BISA Sponsored Postgraduate Conference, Aberystwyth University, 3 June 2014.

PhD in International Politics (2019) Aberystwyth University

MA in Women's and Gender History with merit (2012) University of Nottingham and Central European University [Erasmus degree]

BA in History, minor in Gender Studies (2008) University of North Florida

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2023)