Naddaff To Serve as Next Dean of Harvard Summer School

UPDATED: November 13, 2013, at 11:30 p.m.

Sandra F. Naddaff ’75, a senior lecturer on literature and comparative literature and former Mather House Master, will serve as the next Dean of the Harvard Summer School, Harvard announced on Wednesday.

Naddaff, whose appointment is effective immediately, fills a position that has been vacant since July, when former Summer School Dean Donald H. Pfister was appointed as interim Dean of the College in the wake of Evelynn M. Hammonds' resignation from the College deanship.

“I am delighted to be joining the Harvard Summer School and am especially excited by the opportunity to work with such a broad range of programs and students, both here on our Cambridge campus and abroad,” Naddaff said in the press release announcing her appointment.

Naddaff’s roots at Harvard run deep. After attending the College, she went on to secure a Masters degree and Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1978 and 1983, respectively. She began teaching in the Comparative Literature Department soon after, and served as one of Mather's House Masters from 1993-2010 alongside her husband, Leigh G. Hafrey ’73. Today, in addition to her lecturing duties, she serves as director of studies for Harvard’s Literature Department and as director of the Freshman Seminar program.

In her new role as Summer School Dean, Naddaff will have the responsibility of overseeing 6,000 students in over 300 courses both at Harvard and around the world.

“Our goal every day is to extend the high quality Harvard is known for to students from around the world,” Dean of Continuing Education Huntington D. Lambert said in the press release. “Having Sandra lead the Summer School and our existing amazing team assures that we will achieve those goals for the students who come here to live the Harvard experience in the summer months."

Colleagues praised the choice of Naddaff as Summer School Dean, pointing to her experience as a former House Master and head of the Freshman Seminar program as factors that make her well-suited for the job.

“As Director of Studies in the Literature Program, Director of the Freshman Seminar Program, and former House Master at Mather House, she brings deep knowledge of the College to this position,” wrote Christie McDonald, professor of French language and literature and of comparative literature, in an email. “The Summer School will have a sure hand to guide it and a wonderful person at the helm."

Literature professor William M. Todd echoed McDonald’s sentiment. “She has been a wise adviser in our literature concentration, an inspired teacher, and an effective leader,” he wrote in an email. “I’m sure she will do a wonderful job as Dean of the Summer School. Her experience as a House Co-Master, together with her experience as a director of studies makes her the perfect candidate for this deanship.”

—Staff writer John P. Finnegan can be reached at finnegan@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @finneganspake.