Most of her scholarly work explores the relationship between Christianity and literature in Britain from the Reformation to the 21st century.
Shell was educated at North London Collegiate School and St Hilda’s College, Oxford, where she obtained a B.A./M.A.
[1] Since 2010, Shell has been a series editor for the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto.
Alongside Thomas S. Freeman and Ann Hutchison, she founded the series ‘Catholic and Recusant Texts of the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods.’ She also serves on the editorial boards for the journals British Catholic History[2] and Reformation.
She reviews for the Times Literary Supplement,[3] and in 2024 she preached the annual Shakespeare Sermon at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon.