Story: Phillip Tutor | Photo: Betsy Compton
English professor’s love of literature and pop culture shines in Wallace Hall聽
When聽Dr. Lesa Shaul聽reclines in her chair, within arm鈥檚 reach are shelves of classic literature, the poetry of Percy Shelley, William Faulkner鈥檚 streams of consciousness, the brilliance of Robert Penn Warren. For a professor of English, the cramped space seems an oasis of calm, a few square feet bloated with printed words worthy of memorization.
But there, amid her office at the , Shaul is never alone.
The whole cast of 鈥淗amilton鈥� is present, including a resplendent King George III. So, too, is Vito Corleone, the Kennedys, John F. and Jackie, and a toga-wearing Bluto from 鈥淣ational Lampoon’s Animal House.鈥� If they could, Adele, Willie Nelson, Prince, Amy Winehouse, Billy Idol and Johnny Cash would sing while she reads. Venus Williams isn鈥檛 the only athlete in the room; joining her are Michael Jordan and Allen Iverson and a host of NBA stars. Rocky Balboa is there, along with Apollo Creed. The cast of 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� is nearby. Daryl Dixon and Michonne and Dog from 鈥淭he Walking Dead鈥� mingle with colleagues from 鈥淭he Office.鈥� Marilyn Monroe looks exquisite, as does Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana.
Among Shaul鈥檚 favorites are residents of her office鈥檚 Murderers鈥� Row. They鈥檙e a bloody mess. Hannibal Lecter. Jason Voorhees. Patrick Bateman. Freddie Krueger. Michael Myers. Jack Torrance. And Chucky and Carrie and Pennywise.
The obvious question: Why?
鈥淏ecause I’m a little into the macabre, maybe,鈥� Shaul said.
Perhaps. But it鈥檚 undeniable that these characters of pop culture, sports and music — 213 — are the visual stars of Shaul鈥檚 space in Wallace Hall. They鈥檙e omnipresent: on bookshelves, atop filing cabinets, guarding her office door, near her computer. There鈥檚 seemingly no room for new arrivals, which there surely will be. The sheer number of Funkos, with oversized eyes and odd facial expressions and tiny torsos, can make it hard for first-time visitors to preserve a train of thought.
They also share the spotlight with Shaul, the former director of UWA鈥檚 honors program who鈥檚 won several of the university鈥檚 top faculty honors, including the McIllwain Bell Trustee Professor Award (2016) and the William E. Gilbert Award for Outstanding Teaching (2003). But her office collection of pop-culture toy figurines is so unique, as well as so visually arresting, that separating her campus image from her decades at UWA isn鈥檛 a simple exercise.
She鈥檚 OK with that, even if the sight of a few hundred faces staring at them catches unsuspecting students off guard.
鈥淚 didn’t move the Funkos to my office until after we came back from the COVID shutdown,鈥� Shaul said, 鈥渟o it seemed to be a manifestation of some sort of psychosis I had developed during the shutdown. But only now are students actually coming to my office really with any kind of regularity.鈥�
For what it鈥檚 worth, sharing her office with marauders and queens and movie stars wasn鈥檛 an orchestrated plan. Minus the Funkos, Shaul鈥檚 workspace is an extension of her day job, an English professor enveloped by spines of classic works. But her son was a fan of 鈥淭he Walking Dead鈥� graphic novels, which birthed a familial obsession with the television series and the acquisition of her first figurine, a likeness of Daryl Dixon, thanks to a gift from Dr. Alan Brown, an UWA English department colleague.
Shaul wasn鈥檛 yet a Funko Pop! devotee, though she found the merging of toy figurines and her preferred zombie apocalypse drama worth the child-like effort. Shaul couldn鈥檛 have only one 鈥淲alking Dead鈥� character, she thought. If she had Daryl, she had to have Michonne. And Daryl鈥檚 pet dog named, simply, Dog. And Alpha, one of the show鈥檚 villains. And another version of Daryl. The spigot was opened. 鈥淎nd then people started noticing that I had these things and they would buy them for me as gifts, and I would obsessively find ones that I wanted,鈥� she said.
Jazzed that her collection has topped 200, Shaul is adamant that 鈥渋t is not quite crazy land,鈥� and she鈥檚 probably right, given that the Guiness Book of World Records lists the largest Funko Pop! collection . baby直播 who swing by her office are often astonished, but nothing more, not even when they hear that her favorite Funko is Medusa, her head draped in poisonous snakes. 鈥淭hey either think I鈥檓 a weird, crazy woman or they immediately delight in trying to identify them, like, 鈥極h, that is so cool,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淎nd they love them for the same reason I do. It’s the little individual touches, like Miles Davis with his trademark giant glasses, and Dwight Schrute (from 鈥楾he Office鈥�) with the stapler and the Jell-O.鈥�
Behind the playfulness of her office decor is a childhood story of a curious schoolgirl, an encouraging grandmother and an inquisitiveness that couldn鈥檛 be quenched.
鈥淚 loved books and I loved reading. My sister is 10 years older than I am, and so I would go for a lot of her books, which weren’t necessarily age appropriate; it was a lot of Judy Blume. I read 鈥楬elter Skelter鈥� when I was pretty young. I read anything I could get my hands on.鈥�
— Dr. Lesa Shaul
Sand Mountain, the region of northeast baby直播 where Shaul grew up, is a strip of Appalachian foothills southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee, renowned for rocky land and small towns. Her family lived on a chicken farm near Douglas, a Marshall County burgh of less than 1,000 residents that offered a few gas stations and a drugstore, but not much else. Her grandmother taught school. When they went to town, they drove south to Gadsden, whose shopping mall contained a chain bookstore.
After she retired, Shaul鈥檚 grandmother harvested pecans, selling small bags of nuts to boost her monthly pension. With that money, she鈥檇 take her granddaughter to the bookstore, opening the world to the future English professor through pages of classic literature. Few books were off limits. They bought 鈥淏ulfinch鈥檚 Mythology,鈥� Edith Hamilton鈥檚 鈥淢ythology,鈥� Homer鈥檚 鈥淭he Iliad鈥� and 鈥淭he Odyssey,鈥� and Frances Hodgson Burnett鈥檚 鈥淭he Secret Garden.鈥� She devoured books discarded by college students who moved in and out of the rental homes her parents owned near Snead State Community College. That she meandered into the story boards of graphic novels may explain how easily she embraced the quirkiness of pop culture later in life.
鈥淚 loved books and I loved reading,鈥� Shaul said. 鈥淢y sister is 10 years older than I am, and so I would go for a lot of her books, which weren’t necessarily age appropriate; it was a lot of Judy Blume. I read 鈥楬elter Skelter鈥� when I was pretty young. I read anything I could get my hands on.鈥� Storytellers dominate her family tree, she said, the sort of Alabamians who will 鈥渟tay at a dinner table for four hours swapping stories and everything.鈥� It鈥檚 no surprise, then, that the voracious reader has written a book, 鈥淢idnight Cry: A Shooting on Sand Mountain,鈥� which she says features a bootlegger and a sheriff and the bootlegger鈥檚 16-year-old son and multiple trials. She鈥檚 looking for a publisher.
鈥淚 grew up with stories, and there was a story I’d always be fascinated by — a shooting that happened up on Sand Mountain in 1951,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 heard various permutations of it and relatives would talk about it a lot. People had very definite opinions about it, and it depended whether you were from up on the mountain or down off the mountain, down in Guntersville and Arab and places like that.鈥�
Given her expertise, Shaul carries a strong belief in the importance of studying literature, particularly American literature, in 2022. She tells students in her classes that 鈥渋n order to participate in the dialogue of citizenry, you need to understand the texts that have woven in a lot of these ideas. Not all of them are legal documents. Some of them are just stories.鈥� And as an Alabamian, her explanation of Southern writers鈥� relevance touches on the region鈥檚 complicated past.
鈥淭here’s a love of place and a recognition of great beauty, and not just in terms of the flora, or the fauna, or the landscape, but in traditions and legacies that can represent the highest impulses of humanity,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n the South, where a large percent of the population didn’t have the material means to pass down a legacy, they didn’t have large swaths of land, they didn’t have chests of silver or cut glass or crystal punch bowls, but they had stories.鈥�
It鈥檚 altogether fitting, then, that her favorite book is the Kentucky-born Warren鈥檚 鈥淎ll the King鈥檚 Men.鈥� She has re-read it every year since turning 21, usually in the summer. Why? 鈥淏ecause it asks the big questions. It asks about the nature of knowledge. Is it better to know and suffer, or not to know and suffer and not understand why you’re suffering?鈥�
There is no Funko Pop! of Warren on Shaul鈥檚 shelves. But she can easily imagine what students think when they visit her office, a space that mixes writers like Warren with the frivolity of toy figurines.
鈥淭hat I like pop culture and that I have a sense of whimsy,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd that I think that is fun.鈥�