This is a question about academic ranks or positions. I am interested in knowing the best equivalence for the Spanish 'Profesor Contratado Doctor' in English language (UK, US, etc.).
Description of 'Profesor Contratado Doctor':
- tenured (i.e. permanent) position,
- not a civil servant,
- not an entry-level position to the tenured track,
- is the previous position to 'Profesor Titular de Universidad' (which is sort of equivalent to the Associate Professor position).
So it is something between Assistant Professor (or Lecturer) and Associate Professor. Is it a sort of 'Non-civil-servant Associate Professor', 'Senior Assistant Professor', 'Assistant Professor with PhD'...?
According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_ranks_in_Spain), 'Profesor Contratado Doctor' can be expressed as Associate Professor (but not a civil servant yet). I am writing the current question becauase I want to be sure about whether Associate Professor would be the best way to translate this Spanish position or not. I would like not to mislead anyone when I say I am an Associate Professor (meaning 'Profesor Contratado Doctor'). At least, I would like to mislead as little as possible.
EDIT:
I've seen in Wikipedia and also in this other thread here that mapping academic titles or positions from one country to another is really very difficult and there are too many particular cases.
So, maybe the point is finding a neutral, generic classification, something that can be understood for everyone. Therefore, assuming that we have the following kind of generic tenured positions (sorted in ascending order):
- Assistant professor (entry)
- Associate professor
- Full professor (top)
what would be a name for something between 1 and 2?
EDIT:
More facts:
In this WordReference thread they conclude that Associate Professor is the most appropriate translation.
This sort of official PowerPoint presentation states that 'Profesor Contratado Doctor' is equivalent to 'Assistant Professor (tenure track)'.
This report says that a 'Profesor Contratado Doctor' is a Lecturer.