Her research focuses on human perception and action. One line of work investigates how people perceive pain and communicate it to others. Another focuses on how perceptual and motor processes are integrated during movement planning and control, and how these mechanisms change across the lifespan. At Duke Kunshan University, she teaches Introductory Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, and Quantitative Research Methods.

She has published in leading journals, including PAIN, PAIN Reports, The Journal of Pain, Human Movement Science, and Psychology and Aging. She is a member of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS).

Shan holds a Ph.D. from the University of Bath, U.K. Prior to joining Duke Kunshan University, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford Brookes University, U.K.