Dr. Charles Tatum is Emeritus Professor of Spanish at The University of Arizona where he served as head of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (1987-1993) and as dean of the College of Humanities (1993-2008). Tatum was born in El Paso, Texas and raised in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico. His mother was an American of Mexican descent. Tatum received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, his M.A. from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. Tatum is the author of a monographic study, Chicano Literature (1982)--published in translation in Mexico in 1986--and co-author of Not Just for Children: The Mexican Comic Book in the Late 1960s and 1970s (1992)—published in translation in Mexico in 2008. He was co-founder and senior co-editor of the journal, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture. He is editor of three volumes of New Chicana/Chicano Writing (1991-1993) published by the University of Arizona Press and co-editor of a volume of essays, Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage, Vol. II. His book, Chicano Popular Culture (University of Arizona Press, 2001), was selected as a “Best of the Best of the University Presses” book by the American Association of American Presses. A revised and updated 2nd edition of this book was published in 2017. Tatum’s book, Chicano and Chicana Literature: Otra voz del pueblo, was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2006. Tatum served for almost twenty-five years on the advisory board of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. He was a member of an editorial group that produced Herencia, an anthology of U.S. Hispanic literature that was published in 2001 by Oxford University Press and of a Spanish-language anthology, En otra voz. Antología de la literatura hispana en los Estados Unidos, published by Arte Público Press in 2002. His most recent book is titled Lowriders in Chicano Culture: From Low to Slow to Show (Greemwood Press, 2011. Tatum was very active in advancing diversity issues at the University of Arizona. He was for many years a member of the Diversity Coalition and various committees and task forces that dealt with diversity issues. As dean for fifteen years, he advanced the College of Humanities at The University of Arizona as a model for recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty as well as undergraduate and graduate students. In 2005, Tatum authored a 160-page report, Charting a University of Arizona Course Toward Becoming an Hispanic Serving Institution: Recommendations. The document deals broadly with the recruitment and retention of Latina/o undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and administrators. In 2009, the Arizona Humanities Council recognized Tatum with its Dan Shilling Public Humanities Scholar Award. Tatum served as editor for a 3-volume Encyclopedia of Latino Culture that was published by Greenwood Press in 2013.