When I was younger, I thought it was silly for PhDs to call themselves doctors.
At the time, I didn’t understand how academia works. I thought all my teachers were “professors” and that they all had PhDs. Thus, I thought academic PhDs should just call themselves professors.
I’m pretty sure I called everyone “professor” when I was an undergrad, except for people who went by their first names.
But when I was the instructor, in grad school, I blanched at the “Professor.” I encouraged the students to use “Karma.” One student couldn’t handle that. He called me “teach.” One class kept pushing. Could they call me “Dr.”? No. When I explained that I would soon have my Masters, they latched onto that word. They said “Master Karma” with upturned lips, thinking they were being naughty somehow.
When I got my Masters and started teaching community college, about 20 years ago, “Professor” became true, but students didn’t like it. I kept crossing out “Mrs.” in the “Mrs. Waltonen” they addressed their essays to.
Just two years ago, after making the correction on multiple essays, I wrote that phrase on the board. “Okay, who knows why this isn’t my name?”
“But it IS your name,” one stubborn student insisted.
“Because I’m married to Mr. Waltonen?”
“YES!”
“Except I’m not. I’m not married; I’m divorced. And there is no Mr. Waltonen I’m divorced from. If you insist on thinking of me in terms of marital status, then I’m a Ms. But it’s rude. The etiquette rule is to use someone’s highest title. I get to be in this room teaching you because I’m a Dr. and an adjunct Professor.”
Things are more complicated at UCD. I’m not a Professor there, since that word is reserved for tenure-track research faculty.
When I changed from being grad school teacher Karma to Lecturer Karma, I decided “Dr. Karma” was the way to go, especially since I didn’t want to hear my last name mispronounced all day.
I don’t correct students who call me Professor, usually. It’s strange, though, that a generation of students who can give an hour-long lecture on why we need to call people what they prefer to be called, to honor their identity, ignores the part of my syllabus that says, “Dr. Karma or Dr. Waltonen are appropriate ways to address me.”
The more I get involved in fighting for my rights as a lecturer, the more I insist on the proper address from UCD. In union negotiations, UC people regularly claim (lie) that lecturers don’t mentor students or produce research. Thus, when the university features my work, I make sure the word “professor” isn’t there and that “lecturer” and “Dr.” are.
I’ve met people who look askance at my title (they’re often M.D.s). They don’t usually know that “Doctor” comes from an old word for “Teacher” or that M.D.s stole the word from us when they finally professionalized, when they wanted equal respect to PhDs. They definitely don’t know about the complicated politics in the UC system.
When I tell them that I’m not a “professor,” and ask what my students should call me, they relent. They know it would be an insult to pretend I don’t have any advance degrees.
(Also, “Dr. Karma” is just too fucking cool to give up.)
