Old/New World Discourse: From the Animals in Gan Eden to Shakespeare's Rose: Naming Author: Dr. KJ Hannah (Channie) Greenberg

Thanks for the ride. I grew and had fun along the way. This blog is about to fold and a new one, "She Said: She Said," written by myself and by my oldest offspring, is about to spring up.

Until then, I have a confession. The idea is not too wild, but it might be controversial; I have not been using my name.

More specifically, I have not been using any version of my name that is known to folks outside of this blog's readership. While I could contend that as a teacher of rhetoric and of sociology, I am fascinated with the business of nomenclature or that as a practiced communicator, I could offer that I long ago discovered that certain variations of words suit certain audiences, neither of the above claims would be entirely true. Simply, I was using bits instead of entireties because I had not yet integrated whom I might be.

You see, I was born "Karen Joy Ravets" ("Ravets" having been the derivative arrived at by my paternal grandfather, from the Russian name, "Ravitsky." see: "The Russians," Feb. 14, 2008).  I married my husband, whose last name has always been "Greenberg," after taking my second degree, thus making me "Karen Joy Ravets-Greenberg." Following my third degree, I dropped my maiden name and added my new prefix, thereby becoming "Dr. Karen Joy Greenberg."  Thereafter, I published my academic findings under that flavor, but encouraged my students, undergraduate and graduate, alike, to refer to me as "Dr. G."

My story's yet more confusing. Consider that my given Hebrew name was "Kalmina Yoninah," which, in turn, was changed first to "Hannah Yoninah," and later to "Hannah Yoninah Zohar." Today, "Hannah Yoninah Zohar Greenberg" is the name on my teudat zehut, though "Hannah Yoni" is all that fits on most of my other Israeli documents.
 
As I evolved in my Yiddishkeit, I needed, on my publications, both to move from my Anglo name to my Hebrew one, but also to reserve traces of my original label. Hence, I began to sign my academic work with the hybrid "Dr. KJ Hannah Greenberg." My most recent sociology paper, for instance, presented in Washington D.C., was titled with that name. At the same time, though, my closest friends (and another blog for which I am the author) began to refer to me as "Channie" or as "Channie G."

In fact, I spell "Hannah" and "Channie" with different initial phonemes because of some confusion I had had about chet and heh. Sigh. At least I've been consistent in how I sign my ceramics.

When it came time to write for The Jerusalem Post, I opted for a hybrid of my English and Hebrew names, "Dr. Hannah Joy."  For some reason, I thought that I could remember that combination of references and that I could stay fairly anonymous at the same time. Israelis, I've since learned, are anything but quiet about their opinions. Convergent media writers, likewise, I've since learned also noise off about their thoughts. I guess my stay in the ivory towers had buffeted me from certain realities.
 
Meanwhile, my use of multiple variations of my name created mnemonic and billing problems. For instance, my New World bank thinks I'm "Karen Joy Greenberg," my Old World bank is convinced that I am "Hannah Yoninah Greenberg," while Pay Pal thinks I'm someone else.  In another case, an editor of a very serious academic journal could not figure out that the professor, whose work he was trying to publish, and who signed her correspondence "Dr. Karen Greenberg" was also the "Dr. KJ Hannah Greenberg" who wrote the articles. Fortunately, in that case, after much electronic volleying, the matter was clarified and the work was published with a credit to my name (pun intended).

Unfortunately, in other cases, I was unable to recall which version of my name I used when submitting work to certain publishers. Whereas my unabridged resume provides me with clues as to what I've published and where, only the email file that contains my access codes to journal submission forms stores my electronic identities.

The funny thing is that my publicized academic work dates back to the time when ideas were cached on microfiche and my journalism has been archived since the 1970s. My attempts to keep my writing life and my personal life separated are inconsistent if anything.

To wit, if you Google the correct version of my name, you'll find pointers to print or electronic Judaica that I've written for the likes of: Fallopian Falafel Zine, Hamodia, Mishpacha, The Jewish Woman, The New Vilna Review, The Shiur Times, and more. Similarly, if you key in the right words, you'll find that I'm a playwright with a production record as well as a National Endowment for the Humanities awardee who used to live, it seems, at National Communication Association conferences and who spent some of the better years of her life serving the American Branch of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric.

You might, if you guess the right combinations, even find my speculative fiction. Hint, in the last few months, it's been placed with publications that include: 365 Tomorrows, AntipodeanSF, Bards and Sages, Bewildering Stories, Fictionville, Flashshot, Morpheus Tales, The Externalist, and Word Catalyst. Similarly, some of the recent homes for my poetry have been: Language and Culture Magazine, Poetica Magazine, Poetry Super Highway, The Mother Magazine, and Unfettered Verse, while during this calendar year Literary Mama, Mom Writer's Literary Magazine, Parenting Express, Type-A Mom, and a few others, accepted my sentiments about parenting. You might even find references to the journals I've refereed (academic) or the contests I've judged (creative writing). Then, again, you might be as lost as I am in trying to figure out which name I used when publishing which bit.

I suppose I ought to develop a web page (argh) to pull my parts together. Increasingly, editors and publishers want not only a biography, but also a photo, and even, beyond that, a link to other work. I guess I could try.

Regardless, forgive me for the flash of hands which put this blog into its own rubric. Next time, I'll write as "Becca's Mommy."