Academic titles we all want

The older generation of endowed professorial chairs were named in honor of inspiring individuals or in the last instance in honor of individual donors who established the chair. More recent endowed chairs have been given corporate names: I vaguely recall seeing an advertisement for a "BMW professor of German studies" at a US university. This sparked me to think what I could aspire to as a Balkan boy. The Naxi-Taxi professor of mobility? The Čokolino professor of development? The Šipad professor of stability?

But Dillard University in Louisiana is asking for applications for what may just be the best job title on the planet: the Ray Charles professor of African American material culture. Take a moment to kick yourself for having chosen a different field. Then think: my new ambition is to be the Disciplina Kičme professor of multiplicity.