Dr. Roberta Trites
Distinguished Professor of English Emerita
Office
SFHB State Farm Hall of Business 250B
Office Hours
By appointment only
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Selected 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 Award for Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature
Children's Literature Association
2000
Outstanding University Teacher
Illinois State University
2000
Teacher Recognition Award
Sigma Tau Delta
1999
Distinguished Teaching Award (Senior), Humanities Division
Illinois State University College of Arts and Sciences
1998
Teacher Recognition Award
Sigma Tau Delta
1998
Outstanding Academic Books of 1997 Choice Award for Waking Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Voices in Children’s Novels
American Library Association
1997
Teaching Initiative Award
Illinois State University
1996
Christine Fall Teaching Award
Baylor University
1989
Grants and Contracts
“Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women—Library Outreach Programs”
Roberta Trites.
National Endowment for the Humanities. 2011 - 2011
“Feminism in Anglophone Children’s Novels”
Roberta Trites.
Illinois State University. 1996 - 1996
“The Effect of Feminism on Multicultural Children’s Novels”
Roberta Trites.
Illinois State University. 1995 - 1995
“Manifestations of Feminism in Children’s Novels”
Roberta Trites.
Illinois State University. 1994 - 1994
“Integrated Language Learning”
Roberta Trites.
Illinois State University. 1993 - 1993
“Does It Have to be ‘All or Nothing’?: Modified Homeschooling for a Student with Asperger’s Syndrome”
Roberta Trites, A. Fritson-Coffman, B. J. Huber.
School Psychology in Illinois, 32 (2), 9-14, (2011)
“Schools of Thought”
Roberta Trites, Karen Coats, Patricia Enciso, Christine A. Jenkins, Shelby Wolf.
The Horn Book Magazine, Sept./Oct. 2008, 523-536, (2008)
"Presidential Column"
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Newsletter, (2007)
"Presidential Column"
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Newsletter, (2006)
"Transitions"
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 29, 1-3, (2004)
"International Children’s Literature"
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 28, 194-195, (2003)
"Multiculturalism in Children’s Literature"
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 28, 66-67, (2003)
“Texts and Contexts: The Instrumentalisation of Children’s Literary Studies”
Roberta Trites.
Journal of the Centre for Research and Education in the Arts, 4, 15-17, (2003)
“Avoiding a Quartz Contentment: Character, Culture, and Concepts of Childhood”
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 27, 118, (2002)
“Feminist Pedagogy”
Roberta Trites.
Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Illinois State University, (2001)
“September 11, 2001”
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 26, 114-116, (2001)
“The Uncanny in Children’s Literature”
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 26, 162, (2001)
“What I Did for my Summer Vacation, or Transformations, Existential and Otherwise”
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 26, 62-63, (2001)
“Psychoanalytic Approaches to Children’s Literature”
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 25, 66-67, (2000)
“The Fragility and Resilience of Childhood”
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 25, 180, (2000)
“Women’s Work in Children’s Books”
Roberta Trites.
Five Owls, 13, 69-75, (1999)
“Feminist Pedagogy”
Roberta Trites.
Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Illinois State University, (1998)
“Introduction”
Roberta Trites.
Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Illinois State University, (1998)
“Feminist Subversion in Children’s Literature”
Roberta Trites.
American Book Review, Nov.-Dec. 1997, 4, 8, (1997)
“Theories and Possibilities of Adolescent Literature”
Roberta Trites.
Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 21, 2-3, (1996)
“Booksearch: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”
Roberta Trites.
English Journal, 81 (4), 88, (1992)
Book Review
Rev. of Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women. By Harriet Reisen. (New York: Holt, 2009)
Roberta Trites.
(2010), 35, 217-219, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly
Rev. of Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father. By John Matteson (New York: Norton, 2007)
Roberta Trites.
(2008), 33, 327-331, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly
Rev. of Feeling Like a Kid: Childhood and Children’s Literature. By Jerry Griswold. (Johns Hopkins UP, 2006)
Roberta Trites.
(2007), 32, 394-396, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly
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)
Roberta Trites.
(2005), 30, 341-344, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly
Rev. of The Feminine Subject in Children’s Literature. By Christine Wilkie-Stibbs. (Routledge, 2002)
Roberta Trites.
(2005), 20, 116-118, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly
“The Transactional School of Children’s Literature Criticism.” Rev. of Lissa Paul’s Reading Otherways (Stroud: Thimble, 1997) and Peter Hollindale’s Signs of Childness in Children’s Books (Stroud: Thimble, 1997)
Roberta Trites.
(2000), 29, 268-274, Children’s Literature
“Examining Streatfield through a Feminist Lens.” Rev. of Nancy Huse’s Noel Streatfield (New York: Twayne, 1994)
Roberta Trites.
(1997), 21, 304-306, The Lion and the Unicorn
Review of Elizabeth Keyser’s Whispers in the Dark: The Fiction of Louisa May Alcott (Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1993)
Roberta Trites.
(1996), 13, 77-78, Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers
“Mark Twain’s Sexual Politics.” Review of J. D. Stahl’s Mark Twain, Culture and Gender: Envisioning America Through Europe. (Athens: U of Georgia P, 1994)
Roberta Trites.
(1995), 31, 99-103, Papers on Language and Literature
Review of Shelly Fisher Fishkin’s Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices. (New York: Oxford UP, 1993)
Roberta Trites.
(1994), 18, 224-226, The Lion and the Unicorn
Review of Poetics Today, special issue, “Children’s Literature,” ed. Zohar Shavit
Roberta Trites.
(1993), 17, 103-107, The Lion and the Unicorn
Other
“Non-Sexist Children’s Fiction”
Roberta Trites.
Illinois Reading Council, (1997)
Presentations
“Behind Louisa’s Mask: Discovering the Real Louisa May Alcott”
Roberta Trites.
Friends of Milner Library, Normal, IL, October 11, 2011
“Magic Realism and Race in Adolescent Literature”
Roberta Trites.
Roanoke, Virginia, June 24, 2011
“What Your Grandchildren (and Children) Should be Reading”
Roberta Trites, Karen Coats, Jan Susina.
Mornings with the Professors, Normal, IL, October 29, 2010
“The Pixar Maturity Formula: Sexism, Growth, and Social Responsibility in Children’s Movies”
Roberta Trites.
Normal, IL, October 21, 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”
Roberta Trites.
Childhood and Globalization: An International Colloquium, Online, September 13, 2010
“Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Literature for Youth”
Roberta Trites, Karen Coats.
Childhood and Globalization: An International Colloquium, Online, September 13, 2010
“Enough with the Sexism: Up! Yours”
Roberta Trites.
Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 11, 2010
“Preparing a Syllabus”
Roberta Trites.
Illinois State Association of Literary Scholars, Normal, IL, May 12, 2010
“Focus of Children’s Literature Research: Text or Reader?”
Roberta Trites.
Chicago, IL, April 26, 2010
"Academic Publishing"
Roberta Trites.
Graduate Forum, Normal, IL, April 16, 2010
"Defining Adolescence"
Roberta Trites.
Normal, IL, October 21, 2009
Reading from “Academic Grief: A Narrative Compass”
Roberta Trites.
Richmond, Virginia, September 29, 2009
“‘The Story May Help Us’: Narrative Compasses in Alcott’s Little Women.”
Roberta Trites.
Hollins, Virginia, September 28, 2009
"How to Negotiate"
Roberta Trites.
Charlotte, North Carolina, June 12, 2009
“Historiography and Children’s Literature”
Roberta Trites.
Charlotte, North Carolina, June 12, 2009
“Alcott and the Genesis of the Adolescent Reform Novel”
Roberta Trites.
Boston, MA, May 23, 2009
"Teaching Theory to Undergraduates"
Roberta Trites.
Illinois State Association of Literary Scholars, Normal, IL, May 14, 2009
“Hal Holbrook Pre-Show Lecture: Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens”
Roberta Trites.
Bloomington, IL, March 14, 2008
“Power and its Manifestations in Literature for Youth”
Roberta Trites.
Biennial Congress, Kyoto, Japan, August 29, 2007
“Academic Generosity”
Roberta Trites.
Newport News, Virginia, June 16, 2007
“Issues of Power in Children’s Literature: A Critical Literacy Perspective”
Roberta Trites.
Normal, IL, March 10, 2007
“Forum: Examining the Critical Pedagogy of Young Adult Literature”
Roberta Trites, Mike Cadden, Karen Coats.
Manhattan Beach, California, June 9, 2006
“Adolescent Literature and Literary History: Mark Twain and Louisa May Alcott”
Roberta Trites.
Youth Literature Interest Group, Urbana-Champaign, IL, October 6, 2005
“Jo and Huck: Alcott’s and Twain’s Performative Signifiers”
Roberta Trites.
Winnipeg, June 9, 2005
“Hope, Despair, and Reform: Literature for Youth”
Roberta Trites.
The Child and the Book Conference, Antwerp, Belgium, April 16, 2005