Dr Jess Shahan

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 range of modules in Politics and IR and currently convene the third year module PL3129 Politics of Nuclear Weapons. I also convene the MA module US Foreign Policy and the first-year module Order and Disorder: International Relations 1989 to the Present. I supervise a range of dissertation topics at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including through our Distance Learning degrees.

My current research focuses on experiences of intelligence work, intelligence organisations as employers, gender, and the use of first-person sources in intelligence history. In 2023, I achieved Fellowship status with the Higher Education Academy. I was also recently selected as a finalist for the Teaching Excellence Award as part of the University of Leicester Citizens' Awards (2023), alongside my colleague Dr Cameron Hunter and the team that helped us run the HyPIR Cuban Missile Crisis event in November 2022.

Prior to my time at Leicester, I earned my PhD in International Politics at Aberystwyth University in Wales with my thesis Spying Gender: Women in British Intelligence 1969-1994. For my doctoral studies, I was awarded a Doctoral Career Development Scholarship. While at Aberystwyth, I also worked as a part time teaching staff member in the Department of International Politics, as an exam invigilator, and as an academic subject tutor the International English Centre.

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

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

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

Current Teaching, Semester 1 2023:

• PL1013 The Politics and Government of the USA (module convenor)
• PL3129 The Politics of Nuclear Weapons (module convenor)
• PL2021 Sex and Gender in Global Politics (tutorial provision)

Modules that I convened or have contributed to while at Leicester:

• PL1016 Order and Disorder: International Relations 1989 to the Present
• PL1116 Case Studies in Post-Cold War (Dis-)order
• PL2019 The Making of Contemporary US Foreign Policy
• PL2021 Sex and Gender in Global Politics
• PL2029 Politics of the Global South
• PL2094 Political Analysis 1: Understanding Political Science Research
• 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:

• Women's Intelligence Network (WIN)
• North American Society for Intelligence History (NASIH)
• British International History Group (BIHG) - since 2016 I been a committee member of the BIHG
• 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:

• '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)