Shaun is Senior Lecturer in Politics in the Division of Criminology, Politics and Sociology. He joined the University of Huddersfield in 2012. He previously worked at Queen's University Belfast as a researcher for the Hillsborough Independent Panel report, which investigated the circumstances surrounding the football stadium tragedy in 1989. 

He has an MA in the History of International Relations from University College Dublin, and was awarded a PhD in contemporary political history from Queen’s University Belfast in 2010.

Shaun's research primarily relates to political violence and its prevention and post-conflict transitions. This was originally centred on Northern Ireland, but has also taken a comparative focus. More recently, he has studied contemporary counter-radicalisation policy, with particular focus on such initiatives in the university sector. 

Shaun has acted as a consultant on an ESRC-funded study on economic truth commissions (PI: Dr Iosif Kovras), and in June 2019 led an external research workshop in partnership with the GLOBSEC think tank, Bratislava, Slovak Republic. His research has been featured by media outlets in several countries. 

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), and was winner of the Outstanding Early Career Researcher of the Year Award at the University of Huddersfield’s Research and Innovation Awards, 2015.

• Political violence and Terrorism 
• Radicalisation and Counter-Radicalisation 
• Conflict resolution and peace processes 
• Dealing with the past after conflict 
• British and Irish politics (especially Northern Ireland)