Often, the instructors of my undergraduate courses are graduate students or other non-“professors” (in one case, a conductor teaching a superb opera appreciation course). Other students in these classes are content to raise their hands and say “Professor?”, but I’m not sure it’s appropriate to refer to lecturers as Professor if they are not, actually, professors. “Sir”/“Ma’am” is a bit awkward, as is “Mr. Smith”, the latter especially so if the last name is hard to pronounce. What is the accepted convention?
In my experience, the general rule is to refer to holders of a PhD as “Dr. Lastname”
In cases when the person in question doesn’t have a PhD, I am not sure.
If it’s a graduate student or post doc, “professor” is definitely inappropriate. In both cases, they probably prefer being called simply by their first names, especially in the sciences. Otherwise, Mr.(Ms.) or Dr. Lastname would be appropriate.
I’m teaching this semester. News writing and Journalism at the local liberal arts college. The kids call me Mr. Chance. I don’t have a doctorate nor am I a full time instructor.
Being part time and not having a doctorate doesn’t mean you are not a professor.
However, you can certainly be called Mr.
I am called Ms. Viva or Professor Viva. I am also a PT and have no Ph.D.
Every place I’ve been, professional titles were used - Dr. for M.D./PhD/LLD, etc., Mr./Mrs./Ms. if they hadn’t gotten the doctorate.
You usually need either a master’s or (preferably) a Ph.D.
As far as the college is concerned, if you only have a Master’s you’re an instructor. (The main exceptions is an M.F.A. or possibly an M.B.A., who can become professors. Technically a professor has a “terminal degree,” which in some disciplines could be a Master’s).
If you have a Ph.D. and have not gotten tenure, you’re usually an Assistant Professor. Once you get tenure, you are an Associate Professor. After a time at the college, you become a full Professor. This involves a bump in pay and recognizes long service. The differences here are often very important to faculty.
Students, OTOH, call any instructor “Professor.”
I won’t contradict anyone earlier in the thread but “Professor” is both an official title and an unofficial one in most U.S. schools. The unofficial meaning is synonymous with “class teacher” in college. It shouldn’t really be applied to grad students but that is common enough and students often feel that they should err on the side of formality so they use it that way.
The official rank of professor is lofted and most students (or others) don’t know where a given teacher stands in the department ranks. The real titles would be, say, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Adjunct Professor, Visiting Professor, Professor, Professor Emeritus, or Instructor. The term “Professor” safely covers all of those so that is what people often use.
That’s the key. There are the official titles and then there is the form of address. Nobody would address an instructor using a full title like Associate Professor. The form of address varies from school to school; it’s a matter of local culture. At many schools “Professor” is used to address any instructor. At some schools (e.g., Chicago when I was there) Mr/Ms is used regardless of degree or rank.
The use of formal titles among students is very much more common in the United States than it is in some other English-speaking countries. When i was an undergrad in Australia, we called all our teachers–whatever their official title–by their first names. We had quite a few American exchange students in our classes, and we were always amused at their formality when addressing the faculty.
Also, in Australia (and, i believe, the UK) there is no such rank as Assistant Professor. Junior Faculty are generally referred to as Lecturers. At my undergrad school, the hierarchy, going upwards, was Lecturer A, Lecturer B, Associate Professor, Professor.
Some universities (not many) only offer tenure at Full Professor level. My own grad department had such a policy until about two years ago, but now they offer tenure at Assoc. Prof. level.
I usually refer to my instructors as Dr. Soandso. If they do not have a doctorate, I call them Professor, or by a name they have indicated a preference for (“Just call me Becky.”) Teaching Assistants almost always go by their first names.
As for American formality, once I emailed an instructor prior to the class’ first meeting. As she had an unusual name and was listed as “lecturer”, I did not know her gender or educational level, and addressed her in the email by her first name. In her response, she had a fit and informed me that she had a PhD and was to be addressed as Dr. in the future. Since then, I have been known to err on the side of caution when it comes to titles.
Similar story, an American friend of mine said it took her months to stop feeling weird addressing lecturers and professors by their first names when she came here for graduate studies.
On the other hand, one professor was uniformly referred to as ‘prof’, even by some other staff, for no apparent reason.
I suppose that could be technically true, but simply being called “professor” does not mean you are one. Until you have actually been appointed Professor by your university (sometimes an automatic process after having had tenure for a certain number of years, but often involving petitioning), you are not a professor.
I teach in an MBA program, my official title is “Adjunct.” I do have a Ph.D. I tell the students to call me “Dex.” Some of the students call me “Professor,” I presume that’s because they forgot my name.
As, Dex suggests, if a student does not know the instructor’s name or is unsure of what the proper form of address is (such as when asking a question during class), then “professor” is often the default. When speaking generically in the third person when the instructor’s name or credentials are not considered important, again, “professor” is treated as an appropriate generic – “The professor (or prof) said that he takes attendance.”
‘Professor’ here is usually a specific appointment. However, we have had professor inflation here in recent years as academics realised that American academia will not take you seriously unless you are a Professor-of-Something-Or-Other.
I always start off calling my teachers professor. Worst case, they get an ego boost but correct me!
Again, I’d like to emphasize the two connotations of the term “professor” in American English:
(1) As part of an official job title granted to a teacher by a university or college. Where British institutions might have readers/lecturers/professors, American institutions usually have instructors/assistant professors/associate professors/(full) professors. An “endowed” professorship (“Dr. Lewis holds the Big Honking Dealio Professorship of Megascience.”) is considered to be an honor rather than a regular job title.
(2) In casual use, any person fulfilling the role of a teacher at an institution of higher learning. “My math prof is tough.”
In my experience, at most American colleges and universities, the default form of address for a teacher is “Dr. X.” If the person in question does not hold a doctorate degree of some sort, then the next level of default is “Prof. X.” If the person in question is neither a doctor nor a professor of some kind, then there will be some degree of confusion before some kind of solution is reached (usually “Mr./Ms. X” or given name). A person who is neither a doctor nor a professor is likely to be a rather junior or relatively young person who might still be a student as well, and so resorting to the given name won’t be as socially weirdifying as would be the case for a full member of the faculty.
The main exception is in law schools. Holders of juris doctor degrees generally refrain from using the title “doctor” (although they are entitled to). So the first default in law schools is “Prof. X.”
If it is all too confusing, you can call them “Sensei” which is a very honorable title in Japan.
My Cultural History of Japan professor actually enjoyed being called sensei very much.