[4] From 1998 Shead holds a PhD at the University of Cambridge[5][6] with his doctoral dissertation Jeremiah 32 in its Hebrew and Greek Recensions under supervision of Robert P.

[4] Among Shead's research interests it is included the book of Jeremiah, textual criticism, Hebrew poetry, and biblical theology.

[2] Shead's most important "contribution to biblical theology" are insights into the book of Jeremiah,[1][11] ("diachronic interest in the reconstruction of the compositional stages of the Book of Jeremian in both its Masoretic (MT) and Septuagint (LXX) forms"[12]) referred as "a valuable contribution to the continuation of the debate".

[7] According to Dines "the nub of the question is whether the LXX reflects a Hebrew text 'earlier' and 'better' than that enshrined in the MT,[7] and "Shead has provided a wealth of material and argumentation for further debate.

[7] Sweeney claim that "although the details of S.'s somewhat harmonistic argumentation may be challenged at various point, he succeeds in demonstrating the complexity of text-critical work in Jeremiah.