Background

Mr. Trela was born on July 16, 1958 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He is a son of A. J., a roofing and siding contractor, and Ruby Virginia, a homemaker whose maiden name was Andersen, Trela.

Education

D. J. Trela attended University of Aberdeen from 1978 till 1979. In 1980 he completed his studies at University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, obtaining his Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1984 he received Doctor of Philosophy from University of Edinburgh. Mr. Trela did a postdoctoral study at University of Chicago in 1987-1989, and Roosevelt University, starting from 1990.

Career

Between 1985 and 1987 Mr. Trela was a teacher of English at Pan American University (now University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Edinburg, TX. From 1987 to 1989 D. J. Trela served as a teacher of composition and rhetoric at DePaul University, Chicago, IL. He acted as a teacher at University of St. Francis, Joliet, IL, in 1988-1989.

Then D. J. Trela joined the staff of Roosevelt University, Chicago, working as an assistant professor during 1989-1994, associate professor of English starting from 1994, department head in the years 1990-1993, director of School of Liberal Studies since 1994. In 1989 he was appointed Norman and Charlotte Strouse lecturer at University of California, Santa Cruz. He was a tour organizer and leader of Edinburgh International Festival.

He is known to be a contributor to books, including Victorian Scandals: Essays on Gender and Genre. He is also a contributor of articles and reviews to academic journals, including Victorian Institutes Journal, Bibliotheck, American Notes and Queries, Wordsworth Circle, and Studies in Scottish Literature. From 1993 to 1995 he was an associate editor for Carlyle Studies Annual, book review editor since 1995. In 1996 he resumed his office as a guest editor for Victorian Periodicals Review.

Achievements

• D. J. Trela is a prominent author of a number of books. He has been numerously awarded for his writings. He received grants from National Endowment for the Humanities in 1993 and 1995.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A History of Carlyle's Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches 1992
  • Margaret Oliphant: Critical Essays on a Gentle Subversive 1995
  • Victorian Urban Settings: Essays on the Nineteenth-Century City and Its Contexts 1996
  • The Critical Response to Thomas Carlyle's Major Works 1996

Religion

"[I'm] Free-thinking, but strongly influenced by Protestant Christianity".

Politics

D. J. Trela commented on his political views as "I vote, but with increasingly diminishing enthusiasm".

Views

Quotations: "Like many people interested in writing but uncertain of the market for what I would be likely to produce, I chose an academic career as the best possible outlet for my creative and research interests. Historical research and investigation have fascinated me since my high school days. Salaried work in academia seems to give me a significantly greater control over a larger portion of my time. I emphasize the ‘seems’ for, having worked as a teacher and administrator for nearly a dozen years now, I find I have more to say but less time in which to write."

"My interest in nineteenth-century studies grows out of a general interest in issues of morality and justice, matters which intimately concerned many of the eminent Victorians, and my college reading of Carlyle, who struck me at the time as a forceful moral guide, whose message of transcendent spirituality appealed to me enormously. More recently, work on Oliphant has moved me into gender studies, but has allowed me to retain my major interest in primary documents and works. I am working my way slowly through Oliphant’s unpublished correspondence and her voluminous published essays, reviews, biographies, and fiction, building up to an expanded study of her criticism of major Victorian authors and her thoughts on major issues of her day, particularly the women’s rights movement."

Membership

• Modern Language Association of America , United States

• American Association of University Professors , United States

• Research Society for Victorian Periodicals , United States

• Victorians Institute , United States

• Midwest Modern Language Association , United States

• member of board of directors since 1992

  Midwest Victorian Studies Association , United States

• American Friends of the University of Edinburgh , United States

• Scholarship Association of the University of Illinois at Chicago , United States

• Carlyle Society , United Kingdom

• Royal Scottish Country Dance Society , United Kingdom

• South Cook County Environmental Action Coalition , United States

• Nature Conservancy , United States

• East Beverly Association , United States

• Phi Beta Kappa , United States

• Phi Kappa Phi , United States

• Phi Eta Sigma , United States

Interests

• collecting books, urban architecture, hiking, Scottish folk dancing

Connections

D. J. Trela married Janet L. Boden on May 25, 1986.

Father:

Anthony J. Trela

Mother:

Ruby Virginia (Andersen) Trela

Wife:

Janet L. Boden