Stupid question

[cquin]

Please forgive my ignorance, but I need a quick clarification: if one is a "Professor Emeritus" that means one is retired and NOT teaching classes or working at a university in any way, correct?

[rainy_day]

Yup! An Emeritus faculty member might be around here and there, but likely won't be teaching classes and definitely wouldn't be taking on new students.

[cquin]

Thank you! That's what I thought, but I had a moment of sleep-deprived, confused doubt.

[Medievalmaniac]

Point of clarification: Emerita CAN teach courses and they CAN serve on dissertation committees. Their role in the department really depends on the school they are at. At some schools, they can only serve on the dissertation committee as non academic council members, on others, they can count as academic/faculty members. At some schools they can teach graduate level courses; at others only undergraduate and general ed. courses, and at still others they give a seminar once in a while or do not take on further teaching responsibilities. They generally can NOT serve as dissertation advisers, because they are no longer designated as full-time active faculty members.

[ecritdansleau]

For the purposes of applying, I think it's safe to say you should not suggest your intention to work with emeritus profs on your application, just because you can't really know the situation until you get there. But if it's just out of your own curiousity, there are some retired professors who do work with grad students (especially at schools like my undergrad which was offering special incentives for tenured professors to retire early.) At my school, I witnessed a bunch of relatively young (presumably in their 50s but intellectually in their A game) professors retire, some with their next book manuscripts in the works. Ahh, what a nice thought: to imagine retirement as a very long sabbatical, haha. If there is a professor who falls into this grey area, it might be something to inquire about if you're admitted and deciding between schools.

[cquin]

Thanks for the info! In my case, there is a professor whose work is pertinent to mine, but she is listed on the school's website as a Professor Emeritus. I assumed at first that immediately disqualified her from being at all active in the university, but then I thought, "But she *is* mentioned on the website...if she was completely retired and did not participate in the department at all, why would they even bother mentioning her on the faculty page?" Ah, well. Thanks again.

[cquin]

And wait! ANOTHER stupid question! I googled the shit out of this and could not find a satisfactory answer: how does one format class titles in the SOP? Italics? Quotation marks? Capitalize the first letter?

Right now I am unhealthily obsessed with editing my SOP for Duke. Four more hours until the deadline! I need to just submit and let it go...but...I can't.

[Timshel]

I'm pretty sure they go in quotation marks. That's how I've seen them and how I'm doing it. Also, capitalize all of the main words if it's the title of class because they are then considered proper nouns.

[lolopixie]

The tiny details are what scare me the most

[Timshel]

I know, which is why I am completely mortified that I made a tiny error on my Works Cited page on a couple of my writing samples. My husband keeps trying to tell me that no one will notice, but it's driving me nuts!

[especially]

Most often, but not always. There's at least one Professor Emeritus at my school who is still also teaching courses here regularly, and listed as both 'emeritus' and 'visiting professor' on the department website. When in doubt, I'd email asking about the status of the professor!