Valerie Steele, chief curator of the Fashion Institute of Technology and editor of Fashion Theory: The Journal of Body, Dress & Culture, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that, in her opinion, “Academics are still the worst-dressed middle-class occupational group in America.” With a challenge like that, professors fight back as hard as they can. Princeton University's Elaine Showalter, feminist literary critic, confessed to Vogue magazine that she had a passion for fashion, and that she defended her Ph.D. dissertation in turquoise boots from Bologna. “For years,” she openly admitted, “I've been trying t make the life of the mind coexist with a day at the mall.”

But some, in fighting the widely held stereotype that professors only wear old dirty tweeds and flat shoes, may take their sartorial commitment too far. Emily Toth, professor of English and women's studies at Louisiana State University, who moonlights as Ms. Mentor for the Chronicle, confessed that she once saw a woman interview for an academic job in cowboy boots and a red-taffeta dress. Some, however, use their shoes to distinguish themselves from the grey herd of job applicants.

Andrew Ross, NYU's American Studies' program director, is famous for the clothes he wore to accompany his wedge-heeled suede shoes to the Modern Language Association's 1991 meeting. Jane Gallop, professor of English and comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, coordinates her fashion statements to her intellectual work, as the lecture when she wore cowboy boots and suede fringed pants to discuss Western civilization.

And some who work in universities find that the shoes they wear make long-standing alliances on campus. Diane Ballard first joined the staff of the University of Tennessee in 1969, and the first time she met Joe Johnson (later to become UT president) she was wearing red and blue shoes with a blocky heel, a high-cut tongue, and a undulating swirling pattern in which the red overlaid the blue.

When Johnson asked her where she got her ‘60s-chic shoes, she explained that her “earnest attempt to answer was drowned in his hootin' and hollerin' over [her] fantastic footwear.” Recognizing that shoes can be more memorable than the person wearing them, Emily Toth (channeling Ms. Mentor) offers a few recommendations for fledgling academics headed toward the job market: steer clear of high-heeled shoes. Camille Paglia, professor of humanities at the University of the Arts, prefers not to distract students' attention, and says that she sticks to rubber-soled shoes, slacks and a jacket for lectures. ,