The summer faculty­—a hodge-podge of professors, lecturers, graduate students, and professionals—does boast a few marquee names.

Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of African and African American Studies Werner Sollors teaches courses on American and African American literature, while Bernbaum Professor of English and American Literature and Language Leo Damrosch teaches versions of his Harvard courses, Literature and Arts A-72, “The Enlightenment Invention of the Modern Self,” and English 185, “Wit and Humor.”

And Classics Department Chair Richard F. Thomas teaches both a seminar on Bob Dylan and Latin S-104, “Ovid, Metamorphoses.”

Sollors says the Summer School offers rewards not only for students, but also for professors like himself.

“From [the standpoint of] a student-professor relationship, you get more time in the summer,” Sollors says. “I can’t keep the schedule intact. You have to spread out the reading a little more....The other reason is also more leisure, less distraction. All our students do so incredibly much.”

Sollors says that the presence of younger students does not compromise the academic quality of his classes.

“SSP students are right on track. [I’ve seen] a fairly good level of close readings,” he says.

“I haven’t encountered any particular problems.”

—Dennis M. Hogan, Chaz Kelsh, Claire Moses, Beth Pedersen, Joseph R. Santo, and Michael Skocpol contributed to the reporting of this story. ­—Staff writer Samuel C. Scott can be reached at sscott@fas.harvard.edu.