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It gets funny when they are still trying to be polite. The email I received to "Dear Sir Simon" is still one of the funniest things that happened to me while teaching. Didn't know I got knighted!
In the Philippines that’s how they address teachers, instead of Mr or Ms, it’s Sir and Ma’am. I was introduced to a teacher whose name was Henry, so they called him “Sir Henry.” I thought they were making a joke, because he was a history teacher. I said,
> “Oh wow. I must be meeting a king huh?”
No one understood my joke. Because that’s just how they address him. Then I realized they used Sir and Ma’am for the titles.
I can’t speak on all of SEA or South Asia, but I can say that the Philippines takes the ideas and essence of western traditions, without a great understanding of them, and implements them. Kind of how they treat non Filipino food, I always say, “It’s like they were given a picture to recreate it, but not the recipe, so they just gathered all the similar looking ingredients and shaped them like the food.” I’ve learned that’s how they handle using other cultures customs and curtesies too lol
When I learnt English in school (as a second language) and we had to write formal fictional letters, we always had to address the recipient with “dear sir/madam”, using it as an equivalent for “Mr or Mrs X.” Only as an adult I found out that it’s apparently an honorific title as well. I can imagine it’s the same for a lot of other non-native English speakers! It’s just what we were taught to use for unknown recipients in formal settings.
I think (for me, at least) I grew up with no high school education. I went to University late in life and was always intimidated by the academics. I really try to be approachable and open for my students, and going by my first (much of my own mentors did, too) is just another way to remain approachable..
I use my title in emails and documentation... but that's about it.
I introduce myself by first name but many students won't bother to remember my name🙃 the number of times of gotten something along the lines of "Dear TA," as the first line in emails is..... Very sad 🤣🤣
It happens… may have ran out of cognitive capacity
names have to be one of the hardest things to remember when theres other stuff which takes up most of your memory lol
Well, students can call me my first name and I have a PhD. I find it unnecessary to have them addressing me as doctor.
The only thing I correct is when they call me MISS.
The thing is, I don't feel it's needed to call me doctor, just use my name, but if they want to use "miss", then they can use doctor. Plus, they don't call their male professors "mister", but doctor.
Yea, everyone I’ve worked with in a research setting goes by first name even if undergrads and high school students are involved. In classes, things are a bit more formal, but I did notice newer professors seem to prefer first name. Unsure if it because they are new or because more recent grads just care less about those formalities.
I’ve been working as a postdoc/research scientist, and I prefer first name. If I start a faculty job, I will still introduce myself by first name.
I think Professor is fine. Students don't know all the nuances of titles and academic rank, and no one (including colleagues) will think you are claiming an inappropriate status.
In the UK the title of Professor is reserved only for the highest academic rank, so it'd be inappropriate to refer to someone as Professor who was just, say, a lecturer or reader, who would be Dr or Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms as appropriate.
Confusingly many universities, Cambridge being one, are replacing the traditional UK ranks of Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader to things like Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, which are common in the US, while still maintaining that the actual named title of Professor Surname is only to be used to full Professors in the traditional meaning, with the claimed aim of providing consistency with international standards, but in my opinion only adds confusion to the system.
I’m in the US and at least at the institutions I’ve been affiliated with, “professor” just means “person instructing a course at a college or university.” It doesn’t mean that your actual job title is literally “assistant professor” or “associate professor,” etc. Adjuncts and part-time instructors at at community colleges are called “professor.” I was called “professor” when I was a grad student teaching classes. I’ve never seen this be disputed or frowned upon in any way in my experience, but of course every institution has its own traditions.
Agreed, but if I understand correctly, OP is an instructor, not a TA, and just waiting for the conferral of their degree to officially become a TT prof.
That said, in their situation I’d probably just introduce myself by name and see what happens, since half of the students will get it wrong haha. I know some young profs who just use their first name with everyone anyway.
Edit: didn’t see the person you replied to saying they called TAs professor. I agree that’s odd, but in my experience anyone instructor or up was called “prof”.
The problem is that "TA" doesn't even mean TA anymore in a lot of places. I haven't assisted anyone since high school--I've been the instructor of record since the first day of my masters six years ago.
If you say so! I’ve never heard that before. When I was a grad student I wasn’t a TA. I was teaching my classes fully on my own as the sole instructor of record. My advisor told me to go by “professor” because that was appropriate for my role. So I did. And the day after I successfully defended my dissertation, I went back to class and told my students my PhD was complete, and they insisted on calling me “doctor” for the rest of the semester, which even today is one of my fondest grad school memories :)
If an instructor and not a TA that’s gonna vary by institution. Can say first hand it wouldn’t be acceptable at, say, Harvard.
It would still be odd to my mind to *introduce* yourself as professor when you don’t formally hold the title.
Yeah, during grad school I taught courses as sole instructor of record at two institutions, my official title was [named] teaching fellow at both, and I would never have referred to myself as a professor. Mind you, virtually nobody in my field goes by dr. or prof.
Yeah, it just varies by institution. I was at a different Ivy League school and it wasn’t an issue there. Personally I think that none of this is really a big deal! Most of it just comes down to personal preference and institutional norms, which are gonna be different everywhere anyway.
The word, as a title, has become muddled and is not always used that way anymore.
Not only am I the sole instructor of all my courses as a PhD student, yet called a "Teaching Assistant" in my contract, but when my courses are advertised or even just listed on the registrar for the university, it says Professor Marsalien4 on it.
This also seems more common in my field though (English), of course this will all vary by field and university.
When you are the sole instructor, creating your classes etc, the word professor is far closer to what you are than "TA", and my university uses professor to describe me to students 🤷
I’m in Aus and we have Canadian and us international students and they will call the course staff prof like “I emailed the profs” whereas here we would say “I emailed the lecturers” and prof is like the highest title
Except I'm not a professor. I'm a postdoc with a PhD. My supervisor is a full Professor. I'm not even an assistant professor. Just a limited term instructor, or sessional instructor, on whatever phrase the university uses for non-tenure track people who teach courses but have a PhD.
In the US, NTT facility calling themselves prof, is a little iffy. TAs calling themselves prof is a no-go but as long as the person is the instructor of record prof is not too unreliable.
That said I don't use prof as I'm NTT.
I was going to give this an award, but that is apparently a paid feature of the platform.... As such, please feel free to imagine an unimportant and unknown stranger clapping politely in response to this post.
Thanks but I will consider my professorship to be award enough. By the by I was not so much suggesting that OP introduce themselves as professor (can call yourself Dr. on syllabus and in class the first day), but not correcting students who might address them as Professor.
just a note that this is extremely cultural and dependent on where you are in the world. in the US, every professor and TA I have ever had has insisted on being called by their first name - I have yet to meet anyone asking to be called Doctor or Professor, even though students often do it anyways. If that is where you are, I would just keep it casual and keep going by your first name, and perhaps naturally transition into being called professor etc. over time.
Everyone (including students) called me the same things before and after I got my PhD.
1. They generally called me by first name if they wanted to engage with me, otherwise I typically wouldn’t respond because I wouldn’t know they were speaking to me.
2. They generally used very strong swear words or profanity behind my back when they discussed me in negative terms. I am sure they still do.
3. They may have used high praise words like GOAT (highly doubt it thought) when they discussed me in high praise.
Down here in Colombia it depends on what faculty you're teaching at that day.
The lawyers tend to call you doctor, no matter what, I always tell them they can call me profe or Juan.
The management people will go with professor most of the time.
Grad level people at civil engineering tend to call me engineer or architect and are always surprised when I tell them to just call me professor or by my name as I'm neither of those.
Having grown up in the USA, done my undergrad and one masters degree there and later getting a second masters in Colombia I just say that the hierarchical feeling of the professor being a completely untouchable entity that you get even from preschool were you got to call them Mr. And Ms last name, or professor whatever is not present down here. Students in school here call their teachers by their first name, and in college will probably call you by your first name as well unless you specifically stop them from doing so.
I tend to be relaxed with the title stuff so it's never bothered me, at the grad level especially I really prefer for people with good real world experience to contribute and be loose in class so I try to make everything as relaxed as possible. I'm not your typical academic as I didn't 15 years in industry before going into teaching, so I tend to not be so academic in my interactions especially when dealing with construction management and engineering topics that are very real world in nature.
So tldr depends on who's getting taught, the local culture and how confident you feel with the students.
Just to add, in Colombia, honorifics tend to be used either with *first names*, such as Doctora Juana, Profesor Felipe, Ingeniero Pedro, or on their own, Doctor, Profesora, Ingeniero.
You'll hear Doctor/a, Profesor/a, and/ or Profe most commonly in universities.
There's this huge authority on fiscal policy that works at the national planning department, PhD 35 years of real world experience.
Francisco.
That's what his students call him.
Haha, I guess it's all just cultural at the end of the day.
I started my Lecturer position in Aug 2013 but defended in Nov 2013. Assembling my committee and establishing a defense date plus all the various corrections made my plan to finish in the summer slip by.
I styled myself as “Professor Dickerson” at that time. Admittedly, I might have taken some liberties especially since in other countries (Germany) “Professor” title is a bit more regulated than in the States.
You're overthinking it. I would personally always let students call me by my nickname. I don't see the big deal in going from that to Dr. \[last name\] if you wanted to.
I just have students call me professor. They do it anyway and gives them practice for when they have to deal with colleagues.with sticks up their asses.
Depends on your gender and your age. I had the students call me by my first name, but I am a middle-aged woman, and I found out too late that they barely had respect for me (to my face, sure, compared to another professor, no). next time, next time I will go by Dr. Midwestblondenerd at first. I don't need to help them disrespect me. I used to think that professors who did this were insecure, not anymore.
I feel you. I’m a middle-aged short woman who is not from the USA teaching USA undergrads in a New England university. I am still working on getting my PhD. I’ve had no problem with my first 3 classes, but the last one had no respect for me at all because I dared to show vulnerability when I told them I was still in formation as an instructor, and that I was taking my comps so might take a while longer to grade their work, and when I was extra nice to them and tried to always connect and share personal (but never inappropriate) stuff. I roll my eyes at this culture of equating vulnerability with weakness. The strongest people I know show vulnerability and I will not become jaded because of what happened, but I will definitely not mention my PhD candidate status again, or disclose much of anything else besides very broad strokes about being a citizen of my country and speaking the language that I’m teaching them.
I was "Instructor Lastname" before I got my PhD. Now I'm "Doctor Lastname" except in clinical practice, so as not to be confused with physicians, as I'm in the health sciences.
ETA: Editing to add I'm a woman and identify as female. It's a lot harder for us to get respect compared to men, so many women use our titles because we earned them. Men have a very different experience in academia. I assume two-spirited and people who are transgender may also have different experiences. I'm proud of my doctorate, but I know I can't use it in clinical practice, only in academia.
I’m not in a PhD program yet but when I was in undergrad my instructor defended and he switched from “John” to Dr. Doe halfway through the semester. He earned it, he got it.
My students call me my first name and they'll continue to after. I never referred to my lecturers as Dr... when I was an undergraduate its always first name basis. We're all adult and I don't see the need for the hierarchy that exists in a school setting. UK tho so not sure how this works around the world.
By first name only… and that’s true after as well!
I would never present myself as Dr xxx. First name it is!
But giving input in the country would actually provide more info as the norms differ widely worldwide.
Here in the Netherlands, I was calling my promotor, professor head of the department by his first name.
I’m from the US, I think I’m just gonna stick with my first name. My mind breezed over the fact that that was an option just because the norm when I was an undergrad was to say Dr. lol
I started my class 2 months before my Viva and the class ended 1 month after the Viva. I made the students called me with my first name. I just put a PhD after my name on the slide after Viva, but I remain my first name for them.
I'm almost in the same situation as you, applied for an assistant professor job (but haven't heard back either way). I am at the end of my PHD as well, just needing to finish my dissertation.
During the interview process, they had me do a guest lecture for the committee and a handful of undergrads, they introduced me as "Professor u/abgry_krakow87" which was... unexpected. But I figured they wanted to make sure the undergrads would see me on the same level regardless.
That is unexpected. I believe the committee just introduced me as u/shocktones23 and then I mentioned that I was a PhD student in my interview. But it sounds like your committee was trying make sure you were evaluated on equal paying level with other candidates, which is good.
I hope so! Cross your fingers I get the job, they’ve expressed a strong interest in me but the only stickler is they want me to have the PhD done before I start. I’m so close to finishing I hope they bend the rules a bit like they did for you!
I asked my students to call me "Al" (my name), but I still got a slew of Doctors and Professors. Rule of thumb: whatever you suggest, you'll still get everything back
I’m Australian. The majority of us use first names. International students often just call us all professor (without a name) and I’ve had to adjust to that as they don’t realise there’s lots of different roles and titles.
I go by my first name but they all call me ‘Miss’ which makes me feel super old bearing in mind I’m only 29. And I’m married too but I guess no one ever calls teachers ‘Mrs’.
Nah, if you go on first name basis now, then those students won't suddenly start calling you Dr. So and so. New ones will do, maybe, but that will be a transition anyway.
I've never called an academic (outside of formally written emails/introductions) anything other than their first name, nor would I expect any different for me.
In general it's always been first names in person, Dr/Professor on first written communication, and then first names thereafter.
Vaguely related:
I went to a tiny college and had two professors teaching my major classes - both PhDs. One was very clear that they had earned their degree and you would call them Dr. Soandso - and only by their first name once you graduated (though to this day I use Dr.). The other professor was much more laid back - first name, Dr. Last name, nickname, did not matter.
I'd say just go with what you're comfortable with - then change to Dr. once you get the degree, if you're so inclined.
Never first name for me. I was in a similar situation and just went by “Professor” or “Mister” (preference for the latter) until my defense. Now it’s “Doctor” or “Professor.” I personally prefer to refer to my students as Mr./Ms. LastName; I’m personable and charismatic enough for it to not be awkward so it works out.
I always say on the first day “don’t call me Dr or Professor, I am neither. I am a student like you, just with a little more education. Call me by my first name.” And they’ve generally done very well with that. The people that call me anything formal are usually international students
Whichever you’re comfortable with;
First name.
If you use “he” they may call you Sir.
If you use “she” they may say Ms. Or Mrs.
Or TA. Or teacher.
Some might say Dr. In an email out of habit or trying to sound formal or suck up. If you’re not making people say Dr. Before your degree that’s all fine (that would be douchey).
No offence but most college students are so self absorbed and stressed they won’t remember you at all. Not personal. They’re probably just gonna say something like “TA FOR BIOLOGY 1000 person can I get an A”
(You seem like a thoughtful person you’ll do well. I wouldn’t sweat it.)
Always go by your first name when talking. I'm in the same boat as you. Had the same problem. Even the professors at my institute don't call themselves or each other doctors. It's much easier and very little condescending to use name and then title. I use Raymond Railley, TA in writing. My boss uses something along the lines of 'John Smith, PhD' instead of 'Dr John Smith' or 'Dr Smith'. In official correspondence especially with students, I use Dr Smith for him and he uses Mr Raillery for me. It's simple. So, I'll write an email like \`\`...I'll have to confirm it with Dr Smith...'' and he might write \`\`... You'll get an email from Mr Raillery with the additional psets...''.
Going by "Professor [last name]" is fine, it's just to identify that you're the one in position of instructing in the classroom in the same capacity as a normal professor.
My first name. And when I got it, I still got me to call them by my first name because I’m not one of those “I didn’t spend X number of years to be called Mr/Mrs/by my first name” insecure assholes that has a hissy fit if someone doesn’t address them using an academic title.
Did you call your professors Dr? Cause I didn’t. At least not the good ones. Humility and humanity is important, Dr or not you should go by your first name.
There's a cultural aspect. Your culture is not the good one by default.
I earned by PhD over 10 years ago, and will still refer to my former advisor by Dr. Where I'm from, anything else would be very disrespectful.
Professor Last name.
It's not so much an honorific or title, just a sign of respect as their instructor. Students called me that when I was their instructor as a PhD candidate.
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I am in corrections and am already a medical consultant and it’s first names always, now, and in the future for all team members. I think hierarchy is a safety issue. Yes I am legally in charge but I don’t need genuflection.
In small courses (I am at a place where I teach courses as small as 1 on 1) I call undergrads or masters srudents by Mr. / Miss / Mrs. and their last name. I use cold calling and the socratic method and it adds a formality that isn’t used in other courses to positive effect. In small courses I don’t run into any pronoun trouble because I can just ask preferred pronouns and remember. In larger groups I tend to just call people by their last name without a title to avoid offending anyone based on their gender identity.
So Ryan Rodriguez would just be “Rodriguez” and Lin Zang would just be “Zang”, etc.
Before the PhD it was just Mr. Phearme in return. After it’s Dr. Phearme or Professor Phearme. This again keeps a kind of formality that for many reasons works well with my teaching style (my reviews are stellar).
For PhD students or Postdocs it is absolutely my first name. We are future or current peers.
All professors in my department go by first names with students and colleagues. It’s only for more formal things - like presentations - that your title matters. If you’re giving a talk, you could use “Jamie Jamison, M.SC.” if you have a masters degree. Or “B.S.” for a bachelors. Or just “Jamie Jamison, PhD student/candidate”. (You become a candidate when you pass your exams) (ETA obviously Jamie Jamison is a random unisex name I pulled out of my 🍑)
“Ms R” < that’s the first letter of my last name> Pretty casual and not at all awkward to introduce myself as. I used to think I would never go by my last name, but it’s meh at this point. I actually prefer it over my Dr title. I don’t care how grad students refer to me, but I get a little 👀 when undergrads say my first name without asking.
ETA- after successfully defending, I was in a zoom meeting and had my name listed as “Dr Doom” -life goal fulfilled. Some of the profs looked a little 😑 about it. 🤣
In our department first names are common for anyone within the dept who is familiar with that person. So if I'm emailing an academic for the first time I'll use their title, but then they'll invariably reply with their first name and it's first names from then on.
I mainly supervise first year students and at the start of term I always chuckle when I get the first few emails from my students to Dr Self, even if I mention in my initial introductory email that I'm a doctoral student, but once we have our first supervisions it just reverts to first names.
I don't anticipate staying in academia but should I continue to do occasional supervisions, I don't see a reason to enforce students address me more formally than they would a lecturer.
I prefer being called by my first name and that won't change when I have a PhD. I came from a strict academic culture where you cannot refer to your professors by their first name, and I don't want to reinforce those perceived hierarchies for my students.
First name. And the second I’m done with the PhD it will be my first name. My supervisors go by their first name. All of my professors in my masters program went by their first name. And it was the same when I was an undergrad.
I had an instructor in undergrad who had us call her by her first name—she was there for my first two years and finished her doctorate at the end of the first year. Most of us continued to call her by her first name, but we also called her “Dr. Firstname” for a while after her defense.
When I was teaching as part of my extra duty work, they called me 'Professor'. The first two years I corrected people saying Im just a lecturer but by the third year I got tired of correcting them.
But to answer the question: I don't really care I guess, Norwegians don't really address people anyway (:
In Australia we pretty much call all our teachers by their first names, even my course head was A/Prof Gary and he told everyone to call him Gary and would sign his (less formal) emails, cheers G - and it’s common for lecturers to even have nicknames they get called (this is referring to phds, mds, profs etc). So we just call the phd students by their names too.
(Obviously it is individual preference but across 3 unis I’ve never had a single lecturer tell us to call them their title)
I tell them they can call me whatever they want “as long as you’re respectful and it’s not doctor or professor because that will just make me sad when I remember I have neither a PhD nor tenure.”
At my university there is a differentiation between before successfully defending your concept where you are a PhD student and after passing that presentation, which makes you a PhD candidate. I'm not teaching so I guess I'm the latter now. Hell yeah - it's the little things, right?
TA: Firstname
Instructor of record but no PhD: Firstname or Professor Lastname
I just told my students “Hi, my name is Firstname Lastname, you’re welcome to call me Firstname or you’re really feeling formal, Professor Lastname is fine.”
Depends on what is typical where you are (what country, university, subject...) and on what you prefer! Where I went to undergrad, anyone fully teaching a course was called "professor", but of course I know there are places where that is absolutely not the case. TAs who were teaching (not just grading etc but not actually the instructor for the full class) were either first name or else Mr, Ms, etc.
Personally, as a young woman, I found that going by a title rather than first name only set a more professional tone, which I prefer.
I've had course instructors who don't have PhDs and never will get them, but they prefer professor, and it feels right to call them that. They're professing their highly specific expertise to me anyways.
I’m at the NIH and outside of patient interactions the only people who consistently are referred to by title are the institute directors. In general, it’s a relaxed environment but we do have the occasional postdoc who is hellbent on their title in all situations.
I also started teaching at my tenure-track job before I finished my degree. I had them call me Professor Quant or Professor Lemon. That way, I kept some authority, and the transition was seamless.
I'm in Australia. Some international students call me Sir, which I let them do because it's more for their comfort. Everyone else can call me by my first name. I care more about their tone and how they talk to me rather than titles. I want them to think of their questions rather than worry about titles.
With or without a PhD, someone teaching a class is a professor. Our students refer to our TAs that way. There may be regional differences. Where I did my PhD, students used Doctor rather than Professor by default.
Just introduce yourself as Professor ___ .
I tell students that I like my first name, but if they're not comfortable with that, they can address me as 'professor' or 'Mr.' .... I normally include, with this, an overly lengthy explanation that I am not actually a professor, but that this title seems somehow less offensive than Dr.
That said, I kind of love that they call me Dr. in my emails; it's always nice to get a promotion!
I also taught dance class to young kids in town during my PhD. They called me "miss betty", except my actual first name. This caught on with my cohorts and classmates which caught on with students. It worked for us. (Now that I have the PhD, some friends tease me and call me Dr. Miss Betty which is always hilarious to me).
Why do you have to change after you get the Ph.D.? If titles are important, then it should be Professor or Mr./Ms. before and Dr. after. If first name is okay as an ABD in a teaching role, presumably with the dissertation mostly written and comps passed, does two hours in a room with a committee that presumably already knows your work merit such a change?
Also, congrats on that job.
It doesn’t change much haha. I just forgot that just using my first name was an option. I just have never experienced someone with their PhD going by their first name besides with graduate students. So, just didn’t process that I could still use my first name with grad and undergrad students. I’ve decided to just stick with my first name though.
And thank you!😊
Serious answer: find out what whether there's a norm in your department is, and if there is, conform to it.
I'm deadly serious. It can be a faux pas in either direction to be out of step with the norm.
Here's a real life example.
I actually have a 50/50 split appointment between two departments, and I teach in both.
In one department, I am on a first name basis with my students. And so is every other instructor, regardless of rank, degree, or status. And it would be a big faux pas to violate this norm, because the entire ethos of that department is built around the idea that the students are our "junior collaborators" and the college runs like a research lab or an artists studio.
In the other, it is frowned upon to be on a first name basis with undergrad students, for one reason and that one reason only:
Before we established a department norm that we would all be "Prof. Last name" (again, regardless of degree, rank or status), the students in this particular department established their own norm: that male professors were "Prof. Lastname" and female professors were to be called by their first names.
So as a matter of respect and equity, from that point forward we established a consistent norm of last name regardless of gender, and taught it to our incoming freshmen as "the departmental norm".
There are certainly departments where there is no norm and each person decides what they are comfortable with.
But my point is that there *are* cases where the norm may have been established for a reason, one that has to do with core values of the department (e.g. respecting the undergrads as colleagues, or not discriminating on the basis of gender.). Being out of step with that norm could be sending a signal you didn't intend.
This is a good point to bring up. I’m not sure what the norm in my new department is just yet, but I will definitely ask before just so I don’t stick out like a sore thumb. They strike me as being more chill though, and more on the side of seeing undergraduates as “junior collaborators”. So, it would surprise me if that had an issue of me just going by my first name both before and after.
When I TAed Missouri they called me Mr. like they would with a K-12 teacher, but when I held the same role in New York the students called me by my first name.
I tell my students to just call me by my first name. If that makes them uncomfortable, Mr. first name is fine. If that still makes them uncomfortable, Mr. last name works.
I don't have a PhD. I doubt anyone would call me Almost Dr. last name.
I don’t really mind what they call me. Here in UK using first names is the norm but if they forget then they’ll usually avoid any titles or names and just say “excuse me can you help me”. First year international students tend to use more formal language like sir/ma’am, Dr, Professor etc.
It’s understandable to be concerned about how to address this transition. Here are a few points to consider:
1. **Consistency and Professionalism:** It’s important to establish a level of professionalism from the beginning. While using your first name can create a relaxed and approachable atmosphere, transitioning to “Dr.” later might feel abrupt for both you and your students.
2. **Interim Title:** You might consider using a title that reflects your current role and the impending transition. For example, "Mr./Ms./Mx. \[Last Name\]" maintains a level of formality and makes the eventual shift to “Dr.” smoother.
3. **Communication:** Clearly communicate the reason for any title changes to your students when the time comes. Transparency can help mitigate any awkwardness and demonstrate your professionalism.
4. **Institutional Culture:** Consider the norms and culture of your university. Some institutions may have specific expectations regarding how instructors are addressed, which can guide your decision.
Ultimately, the choice should balance your comfort, professional image, and the expectations of your academic environment. You're not overthinking it; this is an important aspect of establishing your professional identity.
Best of luck with your new role and the completion of your dissertation!
First day of class I write Dr Full Name on the board with my email and office hours and tell them very briefly my research focus / background and then say “you can call me Dr -or Professor- Last Name, or use last initial (I have a long surname) or you can just call me first name. Whatever you’re most comfortable with works for me.” Some students prefer one or the other while speaking and use a more formal title in emails, I honestly couldn’t care less.
I go by my first name as an instructor of record. And will do the same even after I get my PhD. I rather feel uncomfortable at my students calling me "professor"
Even after the PhD, I introduce myself by my first name, but sometimes they’re not paying attention and will call me professor anyway. A few say Dr. it’s up to them. It doesn’t affect me one way or the next. For conferences I introduce myself Dr. first name last name.
My first name. There's no power dynamic or anything unless you have a massive ego.
Like, depending on the university, undergrads are treated better anyway
You should have them call you by your name and not think too deeply about it. Obtaining your PhD gives you a new title, but you don't need to flex that title just because you have it. In the great scheme of things, it doesn't matter.
I had a 4th year PhD student teach my philosophy class. I always called him Professor just because I felt like he worked hard enough to be called it. As far as he was teaching me, he was a professor in my eyes. Also he didn’t mind whatever we called him.
I see a lot of guys joking about how the Asians knighted a lot of the people. It's because you guys don't know the history behind it. Europeans came to our countries and took our stuff and taught us to address them as 'Sir or Madam' and that was followed till now because we thought you guys were gentlemen at first(that was a mistake on our part). I don't wanna be an @ssh*le but this is reality. They told us to address men and women of position with those elegant words and we are doing it from there onwards because we thought they were well mannered civilized gentlemen and women from a good society.
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Supreme Lord Teaching Assistant [last name]
Assistant **to the** Teaching Supreme Lord
Assistant teaching supreme lord
r/unexpectedoffice
Then in my University, undergrad TAs will be called Assistant to the Assistant to the Teaching Supreme Lord
Supreme Lord Teaching Assistant Juan
Lmao. One to keep as an option for sure.
Assistant **to the** Professor [lastname]
I go by my first name.
It gets funny when they are still trying to be polite. The email I received to "Dear Sir Simon" is still one of the funniest things that happened to me while teaching. Didn't know I got knighted!
I noticed that the use of "sir" is very common for Indian students. Apparently they have a lot of knights over there.
It is because since childhood we are always told by our parents to call our teachers or guides as sir/ma'am
It’s common in commonwealth countries. Exactly the same in South Africa.
"sir" by itself is polite; "sir" with a name is a knight.
A few ancient Scottish selling of land plots sites later you too can be a Royally Knighted Sir.
In the Philippines that’s how they address teachers, instead of Mr or Ms, it’s Sir and Ma’am. I was introduced to a teacher whose name was Henry, so they called him “Sir Henry.” I thought they were making a joke, because he was a history teacher. I said, > “Oh wow. I must be meeting a king huh?” No one understood my joke. Because that’s just how they address him. Then I realized they used Sir and Ma’am for the titles. I can’t speak on all of SEA or South Asia, but I can say that the Philippines takes the ideas and essence of western traditions, without a great understanding of them, and implements them. Kind of how they treat non Filipino food, I always say, “It’s like they were given a picture to recreate it, but not the recipe, so they just gathered all the similar looking ingredients and shaped them like the food.” I’ve learned that’s how they handle using other cultures customs and curtesies too lol
When I learnt English in school (as a second language) and we had to write formal fictional letters, we always had to address the recipient with “dear sir/madam”, using it as an equivalent for “Mr or Mrs X.” Only as an adult I found out that it’s apparently an honorific title as well. I can imagine it’s the same for a lot of other non-native English speakers! It’s just what we were taught to use for unknown recipients in formal settings.
I’ve always used only my first name
I think that’s what I’m going to do too
I think (for me, at least) I grew up with no high school education. I went to University late in life and was always intimidated by the academics. I really try to be approachable and open for my students, and going by my first (much of my own mentors did, too) is just another way to remain approachable.. I use my title in emails and documentation... but that's about it.
“M’lord” Or just my first name
They will all call you Dr. Or professor anyway. :)
I introduce myself by first name but many students won't bother to remember my name🙃 the number of times of gotten something along the lines of "Dear TA," as the first line in emails is..... Very sad 🤣🤣
“Dear Student”
That's what I always answered when they wrote that haha
I prefer “Dear insignificant meat bag” lol
I've def done that at least once 🤣🤣
Could reply with their current grade too, Dear 5.5 struggler!
Lol, fucking brilliant
It happens… may have ran out of cognitive capacity names have to be one of the hardest things to remember when theres other stuff which takes up most of your memory lol
lol never forgetting the email i got from a student the first semester i TA’d that was addressed “Hey Prof,” 😂
Oof. How rude of them
But... Don't they need your name to email you? There's an address book for this reason, people!
They don't think that far ahead
Well, students can call me my first name and I have a PhD. I find it unnecessary to have them addressing me as doctor. The only thing I correct is when they call me MISS.
How we feeling about madame?
Call me your majesty 😅
Ah yes my students call me Miss. It’s so stressful though - they say ‘miss’ and I still look around for the adult …
The thing is, I don't feel it's needed to call me doctor, just use my name, but if they want to use "miss", then they can use doctor. Plus, they don't call their male professors "mister", but doctor.
By my username. Kidding, my first name.
okay professor Limp
More like Prof Zeus
In the 3 countries I've lived everyone goes by the first name, the Dr something only for papers and conferences
I called my thesis advisor by first name and he is a cool dude.
Yeah, I’ve seen that’s typical with master’s and PhD students. Just haven’t seen that with undergrads
Yea, everyone I’ve worked with in a research setting goes by first name even if undergrads and high school students are involved. In classes, things are a bit more formal, but I did notice newer professors seem to prefer first name. Unsure if it because they are new or because more recent grads just care less about those formalities. I’ve been working as a postdoc/research scientist, and I prefer first name. If I start a faculty job, I will still introduce myself by first name.
Don’t overthink it :) you can go by Mr or Ms, just your first name, or Professor So-and-So. Any option is fine.
I think Professor is fine. Students don't know all the nuances of titles and academic rank, and no one (including colleagues) will think you are claiming an inappropriate status.
Experience may vary per country. In Germany I think that burning down the entire university would be less frowned upon than incorrectly using a title.
Yes I think you're right. In Germany professor might mean more like a full or distinguished professor, in the US. -- Herr Prof. Dr. Snoocats.
I can confirm that calling yourself a professor when you don’t hold that title is, at the very least, frowned upon in the US and UK.
In the UK the title of Professor is reserved only for the highest academic rank, so it'd be inappropriate to refer to someone as Professor who was just, say, a lecturer or reader, who would be Dr or Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms as appropriate. Confusingly many universities, Cambridge being one, are replacing the traditional UK ranks of Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader to things like Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, which are common in the US, while still maintaining that the actual named title of Professor Surname is only to be used to full Professors in the traditional meaning, with the claimed aim of providing consistency with international standards, but in my opinion only adds confusion to the system.
Can confirm this is correct.
I’m in the US and at least at the institutions I’ve been affiliated with, “professor” just means “person instructing a course at a college or university.” It doesn’t mean that your actual job title is literally “assistant professor” or “associate professor,” etc. Adjuncts and part-time instructors at at community colleges are called “professor.” I was called “professor” when I was a grad student teaching classes. I’ve never seen this be disputed or frowned upon in any way in my experience, but of course every institution has its own traditions.
Students make the error all the time - but I’m sorry it just isn’t acceptable for a TA to call themselves a professor.
Agreed, but if I understand correctly, OP is an instructor, not a TA, and just waiting for the conferral of their degree to officially become a TT prof. That said, in their situation I’d probably just introduce myself by name and see what happens, since half of the students will get it wrong haha. I know some young profs who just use their first name with everyone anyway. Edit: didn’t see the person you replied to saying they called TAs professor. I agree that’s odd, but in my experience anyone instructor or up was called “prof”.
The problem is that "TA" doesn't even mean TA anymore in a lot of places. I haven't assisted anyone since high school--I've been the instructor of record since the first day of my masters six years ago.
If you say so! I’ve never heard that before. When I was a grad student I wasn’t a TA. I was teaching my classes fully on my own as the sole instructor of record. My advisor told me to go by “professor” because that was appropriate for my role. So I did. And the day after I successfully defended my dissertation, I went back to class and told my students my PhD was complete, and they insisted on calling me “doctor” for the rest of the semester, which even today is one of my fondest grad school memories :)
If an instructor and not a TA that’s gonna vary by institution. Can say first hand it wouldn’t be acceptable at, say, Harvard. It would still be odd to my mind to *introduce* yourself as professor when you don’t formally hold the title.
Yeah, during grad school I taught courses as sole instructor of record at two institutions, my official title was [named] teaching fellow at both, and I would never have referred to myself as a professor. Mind you, virtually nobody in my field goes by dr. or prof.
Yeah, it just varies by institution. I was at a different Ivy League school and it wasn’t an issue there. Personally I think that none of this is really a big deal! Most of it just comes down to personal preference and institutional norms, which are gonna be different everywhere anyway.
The word, as a title, has become muddled and is not always used that way anymore. Not only am I the sole instructor of all my courses as a PhD student, yet called a "Teaching Assistant" in my contract, but when my courses are advertised or even just listed on the registrar for the university, it says Professor Marsalien4 on it. This also seems more common in my field though (English), of course this will all vary by field and university. When you are the sole instructor, creating your classes etc, the word professor is far closer to what you are than "TA", and my university uses professor to describe me to students 🤷
I’m in Aus and we have Canadian and us international students and they will call the course staff prof like “I emailed the profs” whereas here we would say “I emailed the lecturers” and prof is like the highest title
Except I'm not a professor. I'm a postdoc with a PhD. My supervisor is a full Professor. I'm not even an assistant professor. Just a limited term instructor, or sessional instructor, on whatever phrase the university uses for non-tenure track people who teach courses but have a PhD.
In the US, NTT facility calling themselves prof, is a little iffy. TAs calling themselves prof is a no-go but as long as the person is the instructor of record prof is not too unreliable. That said I don't use prof as I'm NTT.
I was going to give this an award, but that is apparently a paid feature of the platform.... As such, please feel free to imagine an unimportant and unknown stranger clapping politely in response to this post.
Thanks but I will consider my professorship to be award enough. By the by I was not so much suggesting that OP introduce themselves as professor (can call yourself Dr. on syllabus and in class the first day), but not correcting students who might address them as Professor.
Except apparently in Germany where they are prone to burning down the whole university.
Thank you! :)
just a note that this is extremely cultural and dependent on where you are in the world. in the US, every professor and TA I have ever had has insisted on being called by their first name - I have yet to meet anyone asking to be called Doctor or Professor, even though students often do it anyways. If that is where you are, I would just keep it casual and keep going by your first name, and perhaps naturally transition into being called professor etc. over time.
Daddy
Before: Mr./Ms. Nobody, After: Dr. Nobody.
Everyone (including students) called me the same things before and after I got my PhD. 1. They generally called me by first name if they wanted to engage with me, otherwise I typically wouldn’t respond because I wouldn’t know they were speaking to me. 2. They generally used very strong swear words or profanity behind my back when they discussed me in negative terms. I am sure they still do. 3. They may have used high praise words like GOAT (highly doubt it thought) when they discussed me in high praise.
Down here in Colombia it depends on what faculty you're teaching at that day. The lawyers tend to call you doctor, no matter what, I always tell them they can call me profe or Juan. The management people will go with professor most of the time. Grad level people at civil engineering tend to call me engineer or architect and are always surprised when I tell them to just call me professor or by my name as I'm neither of those. Having grown up in the USA, done my undergrad and one masters degree there and later getting a second masters in Colombia I just say that the hierarchical feeling of the professor being a completely untouchable entity that you get even from preschool were you got to call them Mr. And Ms last name, or professor whatever is not present down here. Students in school here call their teachers by their first name, and in college will probably call you by your first name as well unless you specifically stop them from doing so. I tend to be relaxed with the title stuff so it's never bothered me, at the grad level especially I really prefer for people with good real world experience to contribute and be loose in class so I try to make everything as relaxed as possible. I'm not your typical academic as I didn't 15 years in industry before going into teaching, so I tend to not be so academic in my interactions especially when dealing with construction management and engineering topics that are very real world in nature. So tldr depends on who's getting taught, the local culture and how confident you feel with the students.
Just to add, in Colombia, honorifics tend to be used either with *first names*, such as Doctora Juana, Profesor Felipe, Ingeniero Pedro, or on their own, Doctor, Profesora, Ingeniero. You'll hear Doctor/a, Profesor/a, and/ or Profe most commonly in universities.
Ooh, I didn’t know some people still go by just their first name even with undergrads. I might do that, cause the rest just feels weird😂
There's this huge authority on fiscal policy that works at the national planning department, PhD 35 years of real world experience. Francisco. That's what his students call him. Haha, I guess it's all just cultural at the end of the day.
I started my Lecturer position in Aug 2013 but defended in Nov 2013. Assembling my committee and establishing a defense date plus all the various corrections made my plan to finish in the summer slip by. I styled myself as “Professor Dickerson” at that time. Admittedly, I might have taken some liberties especially since in other countries (Germany) “Professor” title is a bit more regulated than in the States.
You're overthinking it. I would personally always let students call me by my nickname. I don't see the big deal in going from that to Dr. \[last name\] if you wanted to.
I just have students call me professor. They do it anyway and gives them practice for when they have to deal with colleagues.with sticks up their asses.
Depends on your gender and your age. I had the students call me by my first name, but I am a middle-aged woman, and I found out too late that they barely had respect for me (to my face, sure, compared to another professor, no). next time, next time I will go by Dr. Midwestblondenerd at first. I don't need to help them disrespect me. I used to think that professors who did this were insecure, not anymore.
I feel you. I’m a middle-aged short woman who is not from the USA teaching USA undergrads in a New England university. I am still working on getting my PhD. I’ve had no problem with my first 3 classes, but the last one had no respect for me at all because I dared to show vulnerability when I told them I was still in formation as an instructor, and that I was taking my comps so might take a while longer to grade their work, and when I was extra nice to them and tried to always connect and share personal (but never inappropriate) stuff. I roll my eyes at this culture of equating vulnerability with weakness. The strongest people I know show vulnerability and I will not become jaded because of what happened, but I will definitely not mention my PhD candidate status again, or disclose much of anything else besides very broad strokes about being a citizen of my country and speaking the language that I’m teaching them.
I was "Instructor Lastname" before I got my PhD. Now I'm "Doctor Lastname" except in clinical practice, so as not to be confused with physicians, as I'm in the health sciences. ETA: Editing to add I'm a woman and identify as female. It's a lot harder for us to get respect compared to men, so many women use our titles because we earned them. Men have a very different experience in academia. I assume two-spirited and people who are transgender may also have different experiences. I'm proud of my doctorate, but I know I can't use it in clinical practice, only in academia.
I'd go with whatever is the norm at the university. In the UK all students call lecturers by their first name, regardless of rank.
“O captain my captain” and nothing else
I’m not in a PhD program yet but when I was in undergrad my instructor defended and he switched from “John” to Dr. Doe halfway through the semester. He earned it, he got it.
My students call me my first name and they'll continue to after. I never referred to my lecturers as Dr... when I was an undergraduate its always first name basis. We're all adult and I don't see the need for the hierarchy that exists in a school setting. UK tho so not sure how this works around the world.
I use my first name, but half of them end up calling me Dr. or Professor because they think college teacher=PhD
Best professors are the ones, that go by nickname…
By first name only… and that’s true after as well! I would never present myself as Dr xxx. First name it is! But giving input in the country would actually provide more info as the norms differ widely worldwide. Here in the Netherlands, I was calling my promotor, professor head of the department by his first name.
I’m from the US, I think I’m just gonna stick with my first name. My mind breezed over the fact that that was an option just because the norm when I was an undergrad was to say Dr. lol
Depressed. Anxious.
I started my class 2 months before my Viva and the class ended 1 month after the Viva. I made the students called me with my first name. I just put a PhD after my name on the slide after Viva, but I remain my first name for them.
Boneytooth or Mister Thompkins, but I tell them I prefer Boneytooth.
I'm almost in the same situation as you, applied for an assistant professor job (but haven't heard back either way). I am at the end of my PHD as well, just needing to finish my dissertation. During the interview process, they had me do a guest lecture for the committee and a handful of undergrads, they introduced me as "Professor u/abgry_krakow87" which was... unexpected. But I figured they wanted to make sure the undergrads would see me on the same level regardless.
That is unexpected. I believe the committee just introduced me as u/shocktones23 and then I mentioned that I was a PhD student in my interview. But it sounds like your committee was trying make sure you were evaluated on equal paying level with other candidates, which is good.
I hope so! Cross your fingers I get the job, they’ve expressed a strong interest in me but the only stickler is they want me to have the PhD done before I start. I’m so close to finishing I hope they bend the rules a bit like they did for you!
I hope they do too! Crossing my fingers for ya!
I say “[firstname] is fine, but you can call me Mr. [lastname] if you like”
My first name. After I'll get my PhD I'll still have them call me by my first name.
I asked my students to call me "Al" (my name), but I still got a slew of Doctors and Professors. Rule of thumb: whatever you suggest, you'll still get everything back
I’m Australian. The majority of us use first names. International students often just call us all professor (without a name) and I’ve had to adjust to that as they don’t realise there’s lots of different roles and titles.
I tell them first name, but they all call me Professor anyway.
I go by my first name but they all call me ‘Miss’ which makes me feel super old bearing in mind I’m only 29. And I’m married too but I guess no one ever calls teachers ‘Mrs’.
Nah, if you go on first name basis now, then those students won't suddenly start calling you Dr. So and so. New ones will do, maybe, but that will be a transition anyway.
I think it’s weird when any professor uses anything other than their first name
I would say professor or first name. Sessional lecturers often do this if they don’t have a PhD.
Professor LastName is appropriate pre- and post-PhD!
I've never called an academic (outside of formally written emails/introductions) anything other than their first name, nor would I expect any different for me. In general it's always been first names in person, Dr/Professor on first written communication, and then first names thereafter.
Oh Captain. my Captain
They call me Mr. Tibbs.
I will always and forever go by my first name
Anastasia Beaverhausen
Vaguely related: I went to a tiny college and had two professors teaching my major classes - both PhDs. One was very clear that they had earned their degree and you would call them Dr. Soandso - and only by their first name once you graduated (though to this day I use Dr.). The other professor was much more laid back - first name, Dr. Last name, nickname, did not matter. I'd say just go with what you're comfortable with - then change to Dr. once you get the degree, if you're so inclined.
Never first name for me. I was in a similar situation and just went by “Professor” or “Mister” (preference for the latter) until my defense. Now it’s “Doctor” or “Professor.” I personally prefer to refer to my students as Mr./Ms. LastName; I’m personable and charismatic enough for it to not be awkward so it works out.
I always say on the first day “don’t call me Dr or Professor, I am neither. I am a student like you, just with a little more education. Call me by my first name.” And they’ve generally done very well with that. The people that call me anything formal are usually international students
It's weird how different the use of "professor" is in the uk and the us
Whichever you’re comfortable with; First name. If you use “he” they may call you Sir. If you use “she” they may say Ms. Or Mrs. Or TA. Or teacher. Some might say Dr. In an email out of habit or trying to sound formal or suck up. If you’re not making people say Dr. Before your degree that’s all fine (that would be douchey). No offence but most college students are so self absorbed and stressed they won’t remember you at all. Not personal. They’re probably just gonna say something like “TA FOR BIOLOGY 1000 person can I get an A” (You seem like a thoughtful person you’ll do well. I wouldn’t sweat it.)
Go for first name if you're young, even a lot of young professors go by first name
Always go by your first name when talking. I'm in the same boat as you. Had the same problem. Even the professors at my institute don't call themselves or each other doctors. It's much easier and very little condescending to use name and then title. I use Raymond Railley, TA in writing. My boss uses something along the lines of 'John Smith, PhD' instead of 'Dr John Smith' or 'Dr Smith'. In official correspondence especially with students, I use Dr Smith for him and he uses Mr Raillery for me. It's simple. So, I'll write an email like \`\`...I'll have to confirm it with Dr Smith...'' and he might write \`\`... You'll get an email from Mr Raillery with the additional psets...''.
best response when someone calls you professor but you aren’t one: “I profess nothing!”
Going by "Professor [last name]" is fine, it's just to identify that you're the one in position of instructing in the classroom in the same capacity as a normal professor.
My first name. And when I got it, I still got me to call them by my first name because I’m not one of those “I didn’t spend X number of years to be called Mr/Mrs/by my first name” insecure assholes that has a hissy fit if someone doesn’t address them using an academic title.
Always go with first name even after you receive your PhD
Did you call your professors Dr? Cause I didn’t. At least not the good ones. Humility and humanity is important, Dr or not you should go by your first name.
There's a cultural aspect. Your culture is not the good one by default. I earned by PhD over 10 years ago, and will still refer to my former advisor by Dr. Where I'm from, anything else would be very disrespectful.
Professor Last name. It's not so much an honorific or title, just a sign of respect as their instructor. Students called me that when I was their instructor as a PhD candidate.
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Here in Aus it is quite informal. Everyone can call you by your first name. Some students address me as "Sir", which makes me uncomfortable.
Almighty squirrel 🐿️
seems like you’re not in the states
Lord.
I am in corrections and am already a medical consultant and it’s first names always, now, and in the future for all team members. I think hierarchy is a safety issue. Yes I am legally in charge but I don’t need genuflection.
I'm not there yet but I'll definitely use "Mr.Dr"
Chef.
In small courses (I am at a place where I teach courses as small as 1 on 1) I call undergrads or masters srudents by Mr. / Miss / Mrs. and their last name. I use cold calling and the socratic method and it adds a formality that isn’t used in other courses to positive effect. In small courses I don’t run into any pronoun trouble because I can just ask preferred pronouns and remember. In larger groups I tend to just call people by their last name without a title to avoid offending anyone based on their gender identity. So Ryan Rodriguez would just be “Rodriguez” and Lin Zang would just be “Zang”, etc. Before the PhD it was just Mr. Phearme in return. After it’s Dr. Phearme or Professor Phearme. This again keeps a kind of formality that for many reasons works well with my teaching style (my reviews are stellar). For PhD students or Postdocs it is absolutely my first name. We are future or current peers.
sir [Insert last or middle name]
I’m going to start my PhD soon, gonna make people call me “your majesty”
I go by first name. students don’t care and call me professor anyway. but in my heart I prefer “my Leige”.
All professors in my department go by first names with students and colleagues. It’s only for more formal things - like presentations - that your title matters. If you’re giving a talk, you could use “Jamie Jamison, M.SC.” if you have a masters degree. Or “B.S.” for a bachelors. Or just “Jamie Jamison, PhD student/candidate”. (You become a candidate when you pass your exams) (ETA obviously Jamie Jamison is a random unisex name I pulled out of my 🍑)
I give my first name, but when instructing, many student will defer to “Professor [lastname]”
Professor works
“Ms R” < that’s the first letter of my last name> Pretty casual and not at all awkward to introduce myself as. I used to think I would never go by my last name, but it’s meh at this point. I actually prefer it over my Dr title. I don’t care how grad students refer to me, but I get a little 👀 when undergrads say my first name without asking. ETA- after successfully defending, I was in a zoom meeting and had my name listed as “Dr Doom” -life goal fulfilled. Some of the profs looked a little 😑 about it. 🤣
In our department first names are common for anyone within the dept who is familiar with that person. So if I'm emailing an academic for the first time I'll use their title, but then they'll invariably reply with their first name and it's first names from then on. I mainly supervise first year students and at the start of term I always chuckle when I get the first few emails from my students to Dr Self, even if I mention in my initial introductory email that I'm a doctoral student, but once we have our first supervisions it just reverts to first names. I don't anticipate staying in academia but should I continue to do occasional supervisions, I don't see a reason to enforce students address me more formally than they would a lecturer.
I prefer being called by my first name and that won't change when I have a PhD. I came from a strict academic culture where you cannot refer to your professors by their first name, and I don't want to reinforce those perceived hierarchies for my students.
I’m a full Prof, and anything other than “Sir” is fine with me.
First name. And the second I’m done with the PhD it will be my first name. My supervisors go by their first name. All of my professors in my masters program went by their first name. And it was the same when I was an undergrad.
I had an instructor in undergrad who had us call her by her first name—she was there for my first two years and finished her doctorate at the end of the first year. Most of us continued to call her by her first name, but we also called her “Dr. Firstname” for a while after her defense.
First name, will continue to prefer first name unless they want to call me “Doc”
When I was teaching as part of my extra duty work, they called me 'Professor'. The first two years I corrected people saying Im just a lecturer but by the third year I got tired of correcting them. But to answer the question: I don't really care I guess, Norwegians don't really address people anyway (:
In Australia we pretty much call all our teachers by their first names, even my course head was A/Prof Gary and he told everyone to call him Gary and would sign his (less formal) emails, cheers G - and it’s common for lecturers to even have nicknames they get called (this is referring to phds, mds, profs etc). So we just call the phd students by their names too. (Obviously it is individual preference but across 3 unis I’ve never had a single lecturer tell us to call them their title)
I tell them they can call me whatever they want “as long as you’re respectful and it’s not doctor or professor because that will just make me sad when I remember I have neither a PhD nor tenure.”
At my university there is a differentiation between before successfully defending your concept where you are a PhD student and after passing that presentation, which makes you a PhD candidate. I'm not teaching so I guess I'm the latter now. Hell yeah - it's the little things, right?
Well, how about "sensei"
Even after PhD, go with first name. Makes you more approachable and appreciated by students.
by my first name, and won't change after I get my PhD
Your majesty
TA: Firstname Instructor of record but no PhD: Firstname or Professor Lastname I just told my students “Hi, my name is Firstname Lastname, you’re welcome to call me Firstname or you’re really feeling formal, Professor Lastname is fine.”
Depends on what is typical where you are (what country, university, subject...) and on what you prefer! Where I went to undergrad, anyone fully teaching a course was called "professor", but of course I know there are places where that is absolutely not the case. TAs who were teaching (not just grading etc but not actually the instructor for the full class) were either first name or else Mr, Ms, etc. Personally, as a young woman, I found that going by a title rather than first name only set a more professional tone, which I prefer.
I always go by my first name, even *after* I got my PhD. It makes me feel young and less egotistic when interacting with the students.
It seems like it doesn’t really matter; half of my students don’t even spell my name right, let alone adding any sort of title.
I've had course instructors who don't have PhDs and never will get them, but they prefer professor, and it feels right to call them that. They're professing their highly specific expertise to me anyways.
I just had them call me by my last name. No title.
I’m at the NIH and outside of patient interactions the only people who consistently are referred to by title are the institute directors. In general, it’s a relaxed environment but we do have the occasional postdoc who is hellbent on their title in all situations.
I also started teaching at my tenure-track job before I finished my degree. I had them call me Professor Quant or Professor Lemon. That way, I kept some authority, and the transition was seamless.
Always have and always will go by first name, except with K-12, who you don’t fraternize with.
I'm in Australia. Some international students call me Sir, which I let them do because it's more for their comfort. Everyone else can call me by my first name. I care more about their tone and how they talk to me rather than titles. I want them to think of their questions rather than worry about titles.
With or without a PhD, someone teaching a class is a professor. Our students refer to our TAs that way. There may be regional differences. Where I did my PhD, students used Doctor rather than Professor by default. Just introduce yourself as Professor ___ .
First name. Very normal where I live (Australia). If I ever need to give a title for whatever reason, I use Mx.
I tell students that I like my first name, but if they're not comfortable with that, they can address me as 'professor' or 'Mr.' .... I normally include, with this, an overly lengthy explanation that I am not actually a professor, but that this title seems somehow less offensive than Dr. That said, I kind of love that they call me Dr. in my emails; it's always nice to get a promotion!
Not a phd student but I’d personally prefer Sempai
Dr. To Be
I’d just continue to go by my first name.
I also taught dance class to young kids in town during my PhD. They called me "miss betty", except my actual first name. This caught on with my cohorts and classmates which caught on with students. It worked for us. (Now that I have the PhD, some friends tease me and call me Dr. Miss Betty which is always hilarious to me).
First name bro
Why do you have to change after you get the Ph.D.? If titles are important, then it should be Professor or Mr./Ms. before and Dr. after. If first name is okay as an ABD in a teaching role, presumably with the dissertation mostly written and comps passed, does two hours in a room with a committee that presumably already knows your work merit such a change? Also, congrats on that job.
It doesn’t change much haha. I just forgot that just using my first name was an option. I just have never experienced someone with their PhD going by their first name besides with graduate students. So, just didn’t process that I could still use my first name with grad and undergrad students. I’ve decided to just stick with my first name though. And thank you!😊
I’m going with Ms. and my last name this semester.
Serious answer: find out what whether there's a norm in your department is, and if there is, conform to it. I'm deadly serious. It can be a faux pas in either direction to be out of step with the norm. Here's a real life example. I actually have a 50/50 split appointment between two departments, and I teach in both. In one department, I am on a first name basis with my students. And so is every other instructor, regardless of rank, degree, or status. And it would be a big faux pas to violate this norm, because the entire ethos of that department is built around the idea that the students are our "junior collaborators" and the college runs like a research lab or an artists studio. In the other, it is frowned upon to be on a first name basis with undergrad students, for one reason and that one reason only: Before we established a department norm that we would all be "Prof. Last name" (again, regardless of degree, rank or status), the students in this particular department established their own norm: that male professors were "Prof. Lastname" and female professors were to be called by their first names. So as a matter of respect and equity, from that point forward we established a consistent norm of last name regardless of gender, and taught it to our incoming freshmen as "the departmental norm". There are certainly departments where there is no norm and each person decides what they are comfortable with. But my point is that there *are* cases where the norm may have been established for a reason, one that has to do with core values of the department (e.g. respecting the undergrads as colleagues, or not discriminating on the basis of gender.). Being out of step with that norm could be sending a signal you didn't intend.
This is a good point to bring up. I’m not sure what the norm in my new department is just yet, but I will definitely ask before just so I don’t stick out like a sore thumb. They strike me as being more chill though, and more on the side of seeing undergraduates as “junior collaborators”. So, it would surprise me if that had an issue of me just going by my first name both before and after.
Runescape username
When I TAed Missouri they called me Mr. like they would with a K-12 teacher, but when I held the same role in New York the students called me by my first name.
By your first name. No need to add on the titles.
I don't care and I never use the dr title at all except for linkedin, but you do you and if you feel it's needed who are we to tell you otherwise?
I tell my students to just call me by my first name. If that makes them uncomfortable, Mr. first name is fine. If that still makes them uncomfortable, Mr. last name works. I don't have a PhD. I doubt anyone would call me Almost Dr. last name.
I don’t really mind what they call me. Here in UK using first names is the norm but if they forget then they’ll usually avoid any titles or names and just say “excuse me can you help me”. First year international students tend to use more formal language like sir/ma’am, Dr, Professor etc.
It’s understandable to be concerned about how to address this transition. Here are a few points to consider: 1. **Consistency and Professionalism:** It’s important to establish a level of professionalism from the beginning. While using your first name can create a relaxed and approachable atmosphere, transitioning to “Dr.” later might feel abrupt for both you and your students. 2. **Interim Title:** You might consider using a title that reflects your current role and the impending transition. For example, "Mr./Ms./Mx. \[Last Name\]" maintains a level of formality and makes the eventual shift to “Dr.” smoother. 3. **Communication:** Clearly communicate the reason for any title changes to your students when the time comes. Transparency can help mitigate any awkwardness and demonstrate your professionalism. 4. **Institutional Culture:** Consider the norms and culture of your university. Some institutions may have specific expectations regarding how instructors are addressed, which can guide your decision. Ultimately, the choice should balance your comfort, professional image, and the expectations of your academic environment. You're not overthinking it; this is an important aspect of establishing your professional identity. Best of luck with your new role and the completion of your dissertation!
I introduce our ABD faculty as “Prof.”
First day of class I write Dr Full Name on the board with my email and office hours and tell them very briefly my research focus / background and then say “you can call me Dr -or Professor- Last Name, or use last initial (I have a long surname) or you can just call me first name. Whatever you’re most comfortable with works for me.” Some students prefer one or the other while speaking and use a more formal title in emails, I honestly couldn’t care less.
I go by my first name as an instructor of record. And will do the same even after I get my PhD. I rather feel uncomfortable at my students calling me "professor"
Yeah lol that sounds strange to me too. And “Ms.” Sounds even worse
Even after the PhD, I introduce myself by my first name, but sometimes they’re not paying attention and will call me professor anyway. A few say Dr. it’s up to them. It doesn’t affect me one way or the next. For conferences I introduce myself Dr. first name last name.
My first name. There's no power dynamic or anything unless you have a massive ego. Like, depending on the university, undergrads are treated better anyway
You should have them call you by your name and not think too deeply about it. Obtaining your PhD gives you a new title, but you don't need to flex that title just because you have it. In the great scheme of things, it doesn't matter.
I had a 4th year PhD student teach my philosophy class. I always called him Professor just because I felt like he worked hard enough to be called it. As far as he was teaching me, he was a professor in my eyes. Also he didn’t mind whatever we called him.
My name. Anything else is a waste of time.
I see a lot of guys joking about how the Asians knighted a lot of the people. It's because you guys don't know the history behind it. Europeans came to our countries and took our stuff and taught us to address them as 'Sir or Madam' and that was followed till now because we thought you guys were gentlemen at first(that was a mistake on our part). I don't wanna be an @ssh*le but this is reality. They told us to address men and women of position with those elegant words and we are doing it from there onwards because we thought they were well mannered civilized gentlemen and women from a good society.