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| Stary Rynek, Poznań |
"Oh, so you're a PhD?" the lady in HR said crossing out one title, replacing it with dr. I am now officially dr. Arnfast after moving from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Poznań, Poland. According to local academia, not only should I (and the students even more) use my title to take the place in society that I have earned - it's expected.
Coming from a very informal society when it comes to names and titles, this is a tangible difference between Denmark and Poland. In Danish academia, you won't find anyone using titles unless on grand occasions. In the daily work, it's considered stiff, up-stiffety, unnecessarily posh, a relict from before the youth rebellion (1968 in case you wonder).
At the introductory meeting with the students there was even a slide in the slideshow with examples of how to address academic staff in writing and in speech: magister (mgr.), doktor habilitowany (dr. hab.)(PhD), Mr./Mrs., most honourable Mr./Mrs. The feeling of being not only in Central Europe, but in the center of manifest history is overwhelming. I was happy I didn't crack a joke to the students about only calling me dr. Arnfast once a year.
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| The Barista |
But there was more to come. Another sign of equality in naming a person in Denmark is the possibility of using both parents' names - if they have kept their christian names. So, mine is: first name + middle name (patronym) + last name (matronym). Not here.
If a woman marries, she may either take her husband's family name, or she may add it to her own, using a hyphen to signify the liason. It's rather common among women with higher educations, and it holds a powerful signature of both social and educational prestige.
As a part of signing my contract here, I've been collecting stamps and signatures from differents offices and departments. It wasn't until I sat in the last office on a Tuesday morning, I realised how my middle name messes up the local systems. There is no box for middle names. If you're lucky, there's a box for second first name. That's it. So, I'm adjusting. Putting away the middle name I took as a pre-teen to manifest the bond with my father. Leaving the Arnfast name to rule my life as a visiting citizen in Poland on its own. It feels a bit like temporarily storing a part of my identity, and I feel the slightly rebellious joy of signing papers using S. to indicate there's more to this dr. than merely Arnfast.
Enjoy it! Just out of Polish curiosity: are you in fact habilitated? My father (Prof.) used to say when talking about his post-graduate students that "habilitations were debilitating". Was yours? J
ReplyDeleteHi, Thanks for your comment. The Danish and Polish academic title system are a bit different. I made a 45 minutes presentation, discussing it with the assessment committee afterwards. I'm formally qualified to apply to be a processor, but my research publishing history wouldn't be sufdicien. Bit IF it were, I'd be obliged to write, publish, and defend a doctoral thesis.
ReplyDeleteBtw my PhD was on the political discourse in Poland in the 80'ies. I'm planning to make a post on the political discourse in Poland 40 years after.