About the name
I’m a big fan of They Might Be Giants, and when I got my Ph.D I made up a song about myself to the tune of their banger (I mean, I think so!) Dr. Worm that goes:
They call me Dr. Wolf
Good morning, how are you, I’m Dr. Wolf
I’m interested in texts
I am a real doctor but I’m not a real wolf…
(The lyrics to the original song are “I’m not a real doctor but I am a real worm, I am an actual worm.”)
Though it wasn’t particularly on my mind when I wrote the song, I later decided that I really did want my students to call me “Dr. Wolf.” My natural inclination is towards informality and nonhierarchical classroom settings, and a few of my colleagues go by their first names. But I decided not to go that route. I wanted to counter whatever inherent biases there might be against taking me seriously because of my age and gender presentation. I also teach people who are my peers, and in some cases my friends, in JTS’s rabbinical school, so I thought it would be good to have a title that gave me a little extra authority. After that awful op-ed in the WSJ (I refuse to link to the thing) about why Jill Biden, who has a Ph.D in education, shouldn’t use the title because “no one should call himself [SIC!!!] ‘Dr.’ unless he has delivered a child,” obviously I’m even more into it. I am a real doctor! But I’m not a real wolf.