Before I even meet Shawn Lehman, I get a clue to his lighter side from the door to his office. More specifically, the dozen comics pasted all over, ranging from single-panel gags to Calvin and Hobbes. Lehman, an anthropology professor, is one of ten finalists for the TVO Best Lecturer Competition. U of T has four profs in the finals.
Lehman brings to mind a cowboy. Something about the tall man in faded jeans recall cattle wranglers from an old Spaghetti Western.
But while Lehman has spent some time in the Wild West—Calgary—he wrangles a different beast. As his students know, Lehman loves to study primates.
It was a big jump. “I was a football player,” he says. “The first time I was on this campus was to play in the Vanier cup in 1985 with the University of Calgary Dinos.” He cracks a grin. “I didn’t think a lot about school, but I did think a lot about football.” Through serendipitous contacts and amazing professors, Lehman ended up in anthropology.
“I love my job,” Lehman pronounces with a hint of a smile. “People talk about ‘doing the job’, but I am the job. This is who I am.”
He grows animated as he launches into stories of his adventures. “One time I was walking in the jungle in Guyana in South America, and I reached the end of this long trail of white sand. I was writing in my notebook as I turned around to head back, and I noticed a huge jaguar print in the sand.”
“And I remember thinking ‘Oh there’s a lot of jaguars, that’s a healthy ecosystem.’ But then I looked at the next print, and I noticed,” Shawn chuckles. “I noticed that it was on top of my boot print.”
He shakes his head a little in recollection. “It turns out that for the last 400 metres or so this enormous jaguar had been walking right behind me. It could have killed me in an instant, but it was just curious.”
Lehman, it seems, has a talent for attracting curiosity. He was nominated for Best Lecturer by students in his first-year Intro to Anthropology course.
“I don’t want to give dry, boring examples,” says Lehman. “If I can render a complex idea down to one silly story, then people will remember it.”
“When you sit down for a test, it’s like this giant eraser wipes your brain clean of all the dry facts, but you’ll still remember the funny stories.”
Though he’s a well-travelled researcher, Lehman admits that there are still some things he hasn’t managed to do: “I’ve always wanted to dress up in a gorilla suit when I’m doing the primate lecture.”
“But all the gorilla suits are one-size-fits-all, and I’m too tall,” he laughs. “But one day I will wear a gorilla suit to class.”
