title use in academic settings

[Mike Salovesh]

I'm proud of my Chicago Ph.D., but uncomfortable if called "Dr. Salovesh".
"Ex-Professor" (I retired five years ago) doesn't sit too well, either. (It
could raise questions about how and why I was eliminated from the
professoriate.) I've not heard the title "Emeritus" used often enough to
have any desire to hide behind it.

That brings up a passing question. Is anybody ever addressed as "Emeritus
Professor +LN" in U.S. academia? The term of reference usage, it seems to
me, would be "+FN +LN, Emeritus Professor of XXology of the U of YY". And
that is just too much of a mouthful for a term of address.

The combination +FN +LN sits well with me for another reason: it's a common
usage among members of the Religious Society of Friends, and I am a Quaker
anthropologist. (Quaker tradition eschews titles for historical reasons.)

So if you feel like citing my contribution to this discussion, please call
me

Mike Salovesh
<m-salovesh-9 at alumni.uchicago.edu>
PEACE !!!

Richard J Senghas wrote:
>
> I'll chime in, finally stealing a moment from duties to sit still.
> [For participants in this conversation, I have a request at the end
> of this message.]
>
> I did my graduate school days in an anthropology department dominated
> by British-trained folk.  (My theoretical perspectives still have a
> decidedly social anthropology sIant to this day.)  If I recall
> correctly, the majority of the faculty had graduate degrees from
> Oxford, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics, with Chicago
> for some of the US-trained faculty;  some of the British-trained folk
> had come through Chicago as well.
>
> As a graduate student who grew up in New England and then had spent a
> decade in the Silicon Valley R&D environment before returning to
> academe, I found the name game interestingly different from my prior
> professional and social experiences.  It also was interesting to
> watch us all (students, faculty, and staff) try to figure out the
> appropriate terms of address.  Some of the students did not seem to
> be aware of their own adjustments to their patterns of address, some
> had more trouble and found it distressing when they weren't sure.
> Some of the faculty were more formal in their professional (or
> professorial) interactions, others intentionally not so.  I also
> noticed that some faculty fostered more of a distinction between
> undergraduates and graduates, while others downplayed such a
> distinction without ignoring it.
>
> We had a married couple in this small department, and so we used Mr.
> & Mrs. to distinguish them, though they were both full professors.
> Outside of their presence, we'd often refer to them by their first
> names for clarity, and even as a way to indicate a certain fondness
> at times.  (These were the two most senior members of the department,
> in both age & rank.)
>
> Because my mother was a physician, I grew up keenly aware that she
> negotiated this tricky issue of titles, respect, and due recognition
> daily, and I couldn't help bringing that experience to my graduate
> school environment.   My first graduate advisor was the Mrs. just
> mentioned above.  For me, I felt at first that I was not adequately
> recognizing her professional status & achievements when I referred to
> her as Mrs.  But I also recalled that there were times that my mother
> preferred NOT to be addressed as Doctor Maiden-Name (she used her
> maiden-name professionally), but instead Mrs. Senghas, because social
> protocol and context made her marital/familial status more relevant
> than her professional status (despite the "master role" of being a
> physician that always seems to trump for males, cf. Goffman).
>
> So I asked my advisor which she preferred.  A true anthropological
> mentor, she replied, "why don't you observe local practice and follow
> suit?"  So I observed, and noticed inconsistent practice.  Now that I
> dwell on this, I'll bet she knew exactly what I would find, and I
> smile.  I found myself adopting the following pattern:  when
> referring to her with any kind of professional context outside the
> department, I'd refer to her as Prof. + FN + LN;  with faculty within
> the department, I alternated between Mrs.+LN and FN-only, depending
> upon the faculty-members present, defaulting to the more formal form
> where faculty had differing tendencies.  With fellow graduate
> students (beyond new-first-years), I'd alternate between Mrs.+LN,
> FN-only, and Prof.+FN+LN, depending upon the students most
> comfortable mode (we had international students, some more
> comfortable with more formally-hierarchical systems of address and
> reference).  With undergrads, I'd always refer to her as Prof.+LN,
> using FN where there might be ambiguity otherwise.
>
> The weekend that my Ph.D. was formally conferred, I introduced my
> father to this Mrs. Professor, using the full Prof.+FN+LN without any
> ensuing comments on the introduction.  However, only moments later
> when catching her attention during social interactions that
> inevitably surround graduations, I addressed her as Prof.+LN,
> whereupon she smiled enigmatically saying, "You may call me FN, now."
> (Somehow I think Van Gennep and V. Turner would have recognized this
> moment.)
>
> I now notice my own students doing familiar dances around name and
> title protocols [at least, for those students who are aware of formal
> titles, which many seem not to be], but this time those dances
> involve addressing me.  Perhaps I should give them my first advisor's
> suggestion.
>
> I think our conversation on this list will probably pop up in one of
> my linguistic anthro courses.  Any contributors mind being cited?
>
> -Richard