Should I address a "Charge de Recherche" or "Directeur de recherche" in France as "Prof."?

Question

In France, the following are two of the main ways people get promoted in academic positions:

1. Maître de Conférences (assistant professor whose responsibilities include teaching as well as research) -> professeur (professor)

and

2. Chargé de recherche (in charge of research) -> Directeur de recherche (director of research).

Note that in the second sequence of academic promotions, one doesn't have to teach and the positions are mostly dedicated to research (although one can opt to teach if s/he wants to).

My question is: while applying to a position (postdoc/permanent) in the team of a chargé de recherche where s/he is the PI of the project, should one address her/him as a professor ("Prof."), say in the cover letter? It's technically incorrect it seems, but perhaps no harm is done because their positions are equivalent to those of professors anyway.

I'd like to know the viewpoint(s) of someone(s) who's familiar with the French system!

Answer 1

French academia is not big on titles. Whether it's by students, colleagues, or the administration, people are rarely if ever addressed by their titles. I'm a "maître de conférences" myself, and nobody addresses me as anything other than "Monsieur", and my colleagues of another gender are addressed as "Madame". That's it, no fluff, no "Prof Dr", no "Maître" -- which wouldn't be appropriate as this is how you address attorneys and notaries, not even "Dr".

If you want to err on the side of the formality, which is perhaps better until you know more about the person in question and how they like to be addressed, you can call them "Prof". It's inaccurate, yes, but we are used to the outside world wanting to impose American title norms on us. You can take comfort in the fact that many institutions have "research professors", so a chargé de recherches could be viewed as a "junior/associate research professor", that you would address as "Prof", indeed.

Personally I wouldn't care if a foreign applicant started an email with "Dear Mr. XYZ" (or Ms. as appropriate), and I doubt (m)any of my colleagues would. But I hesitate to give this advice, as it's possible that in some French academic subcultures some people give more importance to titles. I'm thinking of law and medicine, especially.

However, do not ever address someone as "Dear Chargé de recherches Dupont" or "Dear CR Dupont". That's just not used as a salutation, even if it's the title used by that person on their website.

Answer 2

As stated in a previous answer, the French academia does not use any title. The terms like "maître de conférences", "professeur des universités" are just the position you hold but not the title you have.

If you write an email in French, the best way is to start by "Bonjour" or "Bonjour Monsieur, "Bonjour Madame". To be honest, since I am not a Ph.D. student anymore, I avoid using "Monsieur" or "Madame" because I think it can put a sort of hierarchy in the relationship. In most cases, you will receive an email starting by only "Bonjour". By the way, in the French system, it is not unusual to start an email by "Bonjour".

In some cases, the person you contact can just call you by your first name "Bonjour X" and use "vous" which is the formal "you" in French. It is also very usual to call somebody by his/her first name and use the formal "vous". Then, it can become weird if somebody calls you by your first name and you call him/her Madame/Monsieur.

I just use Monsieur/Madame part for formal administration-related emails. The same story for the hierarchy applies because when the administration contacts you, the most cases, the email you receive is very formal and uses "Madame/Monsieur". Then, to avoid any hierarchic context, maybe it is better to start this kind of mail by "Madame/Monsieur".

If you write your email in English, then you can just call Dear Professor X. It is not strange to receive this kind of email. You can use the same international norms used in the academia.

Answer 3

Use whatever title they use on their website. E.g.,

• Use Dr Alpha Bravo or Professor Alpha Bravo, if they appear.

When titles aren't used, e.g.,

• Their website uses Alpha Bravo, PhD, you can rightly use Dr Alpha Bravo, but may favour Alpha Bravo, since they're discrete about their title.

When no titles are used, you're probably safe with their name, e.g., Alpha Bravo. (Although, you may like to google their name, find and use the title that appears in the press.)

Don't assume an academic adopts national conventions/stereotypes, especially a non-native.