Dr. Roberta Trites
Distinguished Professor of English Emerita
English
Office
Hovey Hall - HOV 401R
Office Hours
By appointment only
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Research
Biography
Now retired, Professor Trites joined the ISU faculty in 1991. She is the author of such books as WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY: FEMINIST VOICES IN CHILDREN'S NOVELS, DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE: POWER AND REPRESSION IN ADOLESCENT LITERATURE, LITERARY CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF GROWTH, and TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FEMINISMS IN CHILDREN'S AND ADOLESCENT LITERATURE. She has also served as Associate Dean and Acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as Interim Department Chair of Management & Quantitative Methods in the College of Business, and as the Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Administration.
Teaching Interests & Areas
Children's Literature
Adolescent Literature
Research Interests & Areas
Feminism and narrative theory in children's and adolescent literature; Louisa May Alcott; Mark Twain
Ph D English
Baylor University
PhD English
Baylor University
MA Humanities
University of Texas at Dallas
Dallas, TX
BA History
Texas A&M University
Article Award for "Nesting: Embedded Narratives as Maternal Discourse in Children’s Novels"
Children's Literature Association
Anne Devereaux Jordan Award
Children's Literature Association
2023
Brothers Grimm Award
International Institute for Children's Literature
2011
Teacher Recognition Award
Sigma Tau Delta
2011
Professor Awareness Week Award
Student Education Association
2011
Teacher Recognition Award
Sigma Tau Delta
2010
College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Lecturer
Illinois State University
2010
Teacher Recognition Award
Sigma Tau Delta
2009
Teacher Recognition Award
Sigma Tau Delta
2008
Research Award, Humanities Division
College of Arts and Sciences
2005
Book Review
Trites, R. Rev. of Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. By Harriet Reisen. (New York: Holt, 2009). Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 35.2 (2010): 217-219.
Trites, R. Rev. of Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father. By John Matteson (New York: Norton, 2007). Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 33 (2008): 327-331.
Trites, R. Rev. of Feeling Like a Kid: Childhood and Children’s Literature. By Jerry Griswold. (Johns Hopkins UP, 2006). Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 32 (2007): 394-396.
Trites, R. Rev. of Alcott in Her Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of Her Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews and Memoirs by Family, Friends and Associates. Daniel Shealy, ed. (U of Iowa P, 2005). Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 30 (2005): 341-344.
Trites, R. Rev. of The Feminine Subject in Children’s Literature. By Christine Wilkie-Stibbs. (Routledge, 2002). Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 20 (2005): 116-118.
Book, Authored
Trites, Roberta Seelinger. Twenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children's and Adolescent Literature. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2018.
Hearne, B., & Trites, R. A Narrative Compass: Stories That Guide Women’s Lives. University of Illinois Press (2009)
Trites, R. Twain, Alcott, and the Birth of the Adolescent Reform Novel. University of Iowa Press (2007)
Trites, R. Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature. University of Iowa Press (2000)
Trites, R. Waking Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Voices in Children’s Novels. University of Iowa Press (1997)
Book, Chapter
Trites, R. "'Queer performances': Lesbian Politics in Little Women". Michelle Ann Abate and Kenneth Kidd (EDs), Over the Rainbow: Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature. University of Michigan Press (2011): 33-58.
Trites, R., & Coats, K. “Teoreticheskie Voprosy w Izuchenii Detskoj Literatury”. Marina Balina and Scott Sheridan (EDs), Konstruiruia Detskoe: Philologiia, Istoriia, Antropologiia. RGGU (2011): 53-73.
Trites, R. “Academic Grief: Journeys with Little Women”. Betsy Hearne and Roberta Seelinger Trites (EDs), A Narrative Compass: Stories That Guide Women’s Lives. University of Illinois Press (2009): 8-18.
Trites, R., & Hearne, B. "Introduction". Betsy Hearne and Roberta Seelinger Trites (EDs), A Narrative Compass: Stories That Guide Women’s Lives. University of Illinois Press (2009): ix-xxiii.
Trites, R., & Wedwick, L. “Embodiment and Discourse in Fiction for Girls”. Susan Lehr (EDs), Shattering the Looking Glass: Challenge, Risk, and Controversy in Children’s Literature. Heineman (2008): 119-135.
Journal Article
Trites, R. "Virginia Hamilton". Children’s Literature Review 127 (2008): 16-24.
Trites, R., & Coats, K. "Where Culture Meets Biology". Canadian Children’s Literature 32.1 (2006): 148-153.
Trites, R. "Autorer og autoritet: Mark Twain og Louisa May Alcott". Nina Christiansen (EDs). Nedslag i børnelitteraturforskningen 6 (2005): 73-86.
Trites, R. "The Imaginary, Oedipus, and the Capitalist Order: Parental Presence in Adolescent Literature". CREArTA: The Journal of the Centre for Research and Education in the Arts 3.1 (2002): 9-21.
Trites, R. "The Harry Potter Novels as a Test Case for Adolescent Literature". Style 35.3 (2001): 472-485.
Presentations
“Behind Louisa’s Mask: Discovering the Real Louisa May Alcott”. Friends of Milner Library. Illinois State University. (2011)
“Magic Realism and Race in Adolescent Literature”. Children’s Literature Association. (2011)
"Academic Publishing". Graduate Forum. Illinois State University. (2010)
“Enough with the Sexism: Up! Yours”. Children’s Literature Association. (2010)
“Focus of Children’s Literature Research: Text or Reader?”. International Reading Association. (2010)
“Preparing a Syllabus”. Illinois State Association of Literary Scholars. Illinois State University. (2010)
“Reading Discussion of Carolyn Steedman’s ‘Maps and Polar Regions: A Note on the Presentation of Childhood Subjectivity in Fiction of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries”. Childhood and Globalization: An International Colloquium. Illinois Wesleyan University. (2010)
“The Pixar Maturity Formula: Sexism, Growth, and Social Responsibility in Children’s Movies”. Illinois State University. (2010)
“Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Literature for Youth”. Childhood and Globalization: An International Colloquium. Illinois Wesleyan University. (2010)
“What Your Grandchildren (and Children) Should be Reading”. Mornings with the Professors. Illinois State University. (2010)
Grants & Contracts
“Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women—Library Outreach Programs”. National Endowment for the Humanities. Federal. (2011)
“Feminism in Anglophone Children’s Novels”. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (1996)
“The Effect of Feminism on Multicultural Children’s Novels”. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (1995)
“Manifestations of Feminism in Children’s Novels”. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (1994)
“Integrated Language Learning”. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (1993)