Faculty Detail Page Dept. of Spanish & Portuguese

Charles Tatum Ph.D.
University of New Mexico
Latin American Narrative, Chicano Literature and Latin American Popular Culture Studies


ctatum@email.arizona.edu
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Position: Professor

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Short Biography

Dr. Charles Tatum is Professor of Spanish and Dean of the College of Humanities at the University of Arizona. He was born in El Paso, Texas and raised in Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico. His mother, Eloísa Aínsa, a Mexican-American, was born and raised in El Paso. 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). He is 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) for 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 (The 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. His published book chapters and articles include studies on Latin American prose fiction, Chicano/a literature, and Mexican popular culture. Tatum serves on the advisory board of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. He is a member of an editorial group that produced 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 literature hispana en los Estados Unidos (Arte Público Press, 2002). His study of the Chicano poet Gary Soto was published in Scribner's Encyclopedia of Latino/a Writers (2004). Tatum's most recent book, Chicano and Chicana Literature: Otra voz del pueblo, has recently been published by The University of Arizona Press. Tatum has been very active in advancing diversity issues at the University of Arizona where he is a member of the Diversity Coalition and various committees and task forces that deal with diversity issues. He has advanced the College of Humanities 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, at the request of Peter Likins, former President of The University of Arizona. The document deals broadly with the recruitment and retention of Latina/o undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and administrators.