WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #1 by Alyssa Wong, Marika Cresta, Rachelle Rosenberg and VC's Joe Caramagna, available now.
Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra is many things. She's an archaeologist, an expert thief and one of the first queer people of color to lead a Star Wars story. Over the course of the first run of Doctor Aphra, readers watched her betray everyone -- Empire and Rebellion alike -- to reach her ultimate goals.
However, her history reveals something else that adds a surprising layer to her already multi-dimensional character. Doctor Aphra was once Professor Aphra. In the new Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #1, graduate student Detta Yao recognizes Aphra as her old professor. Yao brings up her quest to find the legendary (and cursed) Rings of Vaale, bringing Aphra crashing back into her old academic circles.
However, the news Aphra worked at a university as a professor leaves her crew-mates Black Krrsantan and Just Lucky entirely stunned. Aphra justifies this period in her life as "owing someone a favor," but it makes sense she'd at the very least teach a few classes, given her skills. After all, Aphra does come from an academic background.
Doctor Aphra #1 introduces another classmate of hers, Doctor Eustacia Okka, whose research on the Rings of Vaale resulted in her expulsion from academia. When Aphra and Okka reunite, Okka immediately brings up how Aphra's father is a respected figure in the field of academia. It stands to reason, therefore, that Aphra was likely courted for a successful career in academia, only for her life to veer off-course when she became the swashbuckling bounty hunter everyone knows and loves.
The question is why she owed anyone a favor enough to work on classes of this nature. It's possible that, after all her backstabbing and betrayal, Aphra needed the job in order to gain income or perhaps as a means of getting close to a certain goal. That, or she did the work as part of her studies.
Many doctorate programs require students to teach or be published in order to be recognized for their degree. In this case, the favor Aphra owed may have been an academic requirement in order to pass her classes. This dispels any potential illusion that Aphra is just some deviant. She went through the proper academic channels, became a master in her field, but then chose to pursue a life of crime for the sheer sake of it. Aphra isn't some thief with a cool name: She earned the title "doctor."