Faculty Profiles

Colleges and Departments
Portrait of Dr. Joaquin Rivaya-Martinez

Dr. Joaquin Rivaya-Martinez

  • Professor at History, College of Liberal Arts

Service Activities

Ongoing

  • Member, Institutional Liaison, The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America. June 2017 - Present.
  • Chair, Senior Seminar Committee. August 2025 - Present.
  • Chair, Search Committee for an assistant professor on the History of Science and Tenchonolgy. May 2025 - Present.
  • Member, Outreach and Recruitment Committee. 2023 - Present.
  • Member, Antiquities Advisory Board, Texas Historical Commission. February 2022 - Present.
  • Board Member, Antiquities Advisory Board, Texas Historical Commission. February 2022 - Present.
  • Member, Organizing Committee, International Colloquium on Northeastern Mexico and Texas. 2015 - Present.
  • Member, Executive Committee, The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America. 2014 - Present.
  • Member, Study Abroad Council, College of Liberal Arts, Texas State University. 2012 - Present.

2025

  • Advisor, El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail Association (ElCaT) and the Tonkawa Tribe of Oklahoma. December 2024 - 2025.
  • Member, Senior Seminar Committee. August 2024 - 2025.
  • Member, Research Fund Committee. August 2024 - 2025.
  • Main discussant, Swinney Faculty Writing Group's workshop on Dr. Alana Bunstock de Hinojosa’s manuscript “Remembering a River”. February 28, 2025.

2024

  • Member, Ad Hoc Code of Conduct Committee of the American Society for Ethonhistory. February 2024 - 2024.
  • Member, Presidential Awards Committee. 2023 - 2024.
  • Member, 2024 Texas State Historical Association Program Committee. 2022 - 2024.
  • Chair, Senior Seminar Committee. 2020 - 2024.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, IX Congreso Internacional de Historia de la America Hispánica (siglos XVI a XIX). October 2023 - December 2024.
  • Podcast Host, Podcast interview with author Robert Wright on his book Indigenous Autonomy at La Junta de los Rios: Traders, Allies, and Migrants on New Spain's Northern Frontier (Texas Tech University Press, 2023). April 22, 2024 - December 18, 2024.
  • Chair, Panel on “Pueblos Originarios/Aboriginal Peoples.” 10th International Colloquium on Northeastern Mexico and Texas. November 23, 2024.
  • Speaker, Discussant at the presentation of Robert Wright’s book Indigenous Autonomy at La Junta de los Rios: Traders, Allies, and Migrants on New Spain's Northern Frontier (Texas Tech University Press, 2023), Texas Catholic Historical Society. October 10, 2024.
  • Podcast Host, Podcast interview with author Juliet Wiersema on her book The History of a Periphery: Spanish Colonial Cartography from Colombia's Pacific Lowlands (University of Texas Press, 2023). April 22, 2024.
  • Main discussant, Swinney Faculty Writing Group's workshop on Dr. José Carlos de la Puente’s manuscript “At the Reducción’s Crossroads”. March 22, 2024.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, "Women in the Spanish Borderlands,” Texas State Historical Association annual meeting. March 2, 2024.
  • Chair, “Texas Indigenous Landscapes, Sovereignty, and Memory. Roundtable Discussion,” Texas State Historical Association annual meeting. March 1, 2024.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, “Texas Indigenous Landscapes, Sovereignty, and Memory. Roundtable Discussion,” Texas State Historical Association annual meeting. March 1, 2024.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, Biographies in the Spanish and Mexican Borderlands: Piecing Together Personal Stories of Men and Women,” Texas State Historical Association annual meeting. March 1, 2024.
  • Speaker, Presentation of the book Milicias indígenas en la América hispana, edited by Raquel Güereca (UNAM-San Antonio, 2023), at the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila. February 23, 2024.
  • Drafted History's PC reappointment letter for Alexandra Montero-Peters, Drafted History's PC reappointment letter for Alexandra Montero-Peters. January 2024.
  • Organizer, Roundtable "Indigenous Borderlands: A Book Celebration and Dialogue”. October 6, 2023 - January 25, 2024.

2023

  • Member, Search Committee for a Historian of Europe and the Mediterranean World, c. 500-1,500. April 11, 2022 - 2023.
  • Article manuscript reviewer, William and Mary Quarterly. January 2022 - 2023.
  • General discussant of graduate students' MA thesis prospectuses, Thesis Prospectus Colloquium. December 2023.
  • Article manuscript reviewer, Historia 396. August 2023 - November 2023.
  • Discussant, Annual Meeting of The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America. November 10, 2023 - November 11, 2023.
  • Podcast Host, Podcast interview with author Gabriela Vallejo Cervantes on her book Los caracteres de la identidad (Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica). October 13, 2023.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Alexandra Montero Peters's Western Civilization to 1715 (HIST 2310) class on "Wise Kingship—Alfonso X of Castile-León". September 28, 2023.
  • Podcast Host, Podcast interview with author Yanna Yannakakis on her book Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico (Durham, NC: Duke University Press). September 1, 2023.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author Raquel E. Güereca Durán on her book Caciques, intérpretes y soldados fronterizos. Actores indígenas en la conquista del Nayar, siglo XVIII (Ciudad de México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, 2022) for New Books Network en Español. April 18, 2023.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author José Javier Ruiz Ibáñez on his book Hispanofilia. Los tiempos de la hegemonía española (Madrid: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2022) for New Books Network en Español. March 28, 2023.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author Rani-Henrik Andersson on his book Lakȟóta: An Indigenous History, (co-written with David C. Posthumus; Lawton: University of Oklahoma Press, 2022) for New Books Network. March 9, 2023.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Thomas Alter’s Texas History Survey (HIST 3372) class on the Texas Revolution. February 14, 2023.
  • Commentator, UT Workshop on Santiago Muñoz Arbeláez's "Contested Customs: Reinventing Indigenous Authority in Ubaque, New Kingdom of Granada". January 23, 2023.

2022

  • Podcast Host, Interview with author Dustin Tahmahkera on his book Cinematic Comanches: The Lone Ranger in the Media Borderlands (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022) for New Books Network. June 3, 2022.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author Paul Conrad on his book The Apache Diaspora: Four Centuries of Displacement and Survival, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021) for New Books Network. May 6, 2022.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author Alex Hidalgo on his book Trail of Footprints: A History of Indigenous Maps from Viceregal Mexico (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019) for New Books Network en Español. April 27, 2022.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author Luis Alberto García García on his book Frontera armada. Prácticas militares en el noreste histórico, siglos XVII al XIX (Ciudad de México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2021) for New Books Network en Español. April 21, 2022.
  • Chair, Nominating Committee. 2020 - 2022.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author Alejandro Cañeque on his book Un imperio de mártires. Religión y poder en las fronteras de la Monarquía Hispánica (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2020) for New Books Network en Español. December 9, 2022.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author Cynthia Radding on her book Bountiful Deserts: Sustaining Indigenous Worlds in Northern New Spain (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2022) for New Books Network. December 8, 2022.
  • Main discussant of 6 graduate students' MA thesis prospectuses, Thesis Prospectus Colloquium. December 2, 2022.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, VI Congreso Internacional de Historia de la America Hispánica (siglos XVI a XIX). February 2022 - November 2022.
  • Chair, Panel on “El Noreste y Tejas desde la época colonial al siglo XIX / Texas and the Northeast: From the Colonial Period to the 19th Century" at the 9th International Colloquium on Northeastern Mexico and Texas. November 16, 2022.
  • Discussant, Annual Meeting of The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America. November 5, 2022.
  • Chair, Panel on “Nuevas miradas a las relaciones hispano-indígenas en el norte de Nueva España/México” at the XVI Meeting of International Historians of Mexico. October 31, 2022.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Louie Valencia’s The Myths of Western Civilization (Honors 3399F) class on “Enslavement in the Mediterranean”. March 8, 2022.
  • Podcast Host, Interview with author David Rex Galindo on his book To Sin No More: Franciscans and Conversion in the Hispanic World, 1683-1830 (Stanford: Stanford University Press and Academy of American Franciscan History, 2017) for New Books Network en Español. January 21, 2022.

2021

  • Content Advisor for Museum Exhibit, Texas Ranger Heritage Center. 2021.
  • Book manuscript reviewer, University of Nebraska Press. 2021.
  • Member, Texas Rangers Research Institute at the Texas Rangers Heritage Center. October 2015 - 2021.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, VI Congreso Internacional de Historia de la America Hispánica (siglos XVI a XIX). February 2021 - November 2021.
  • Discussant, Annual Meeting of The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America. November 5, 2021.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr.Sara Damiano’s American History survey (History 1310) on “The Coming of Revolution”. September 27, 2021.
  • Discussant, 3rd Seminar on Procesos socio-históricos y culturales del noreste ante la colonización hispana y la independencia de México (Siglos XVI al XIX). Nuevas miradas desde las fronteras culturales y geopolíticas. April 28, 2021 - April 30, 2021.
  • Discussant, Hispanic American Historical Review and William and Mary Quarterly Joint Workshop. March 26, 2021 - April 2, 2021.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Allison Robinson’s American History survey (History 1320) on “The New Frontier: The Cold War from Eisenhower to Kennedy, 1953-1963”. March 30, 2021.
  • Discussant, 2nd Seminar on Procesos socio-históricos y culturales del noreste ante la colonización hispana y la independencia de México (Siglos XVI al XIX). Nuevas miradas desde las fronteras culturales y geopolíticas. January 21, 2021 - January 22, 2021.

2020

  • Member, Public History and Local and Community History Search Committee. 2019 - 2020.
  • Member, Nominating Committee. 2019 - 2020.
  • Discussant, 1st Seminar on Procesos socio-históricos y culturales del noreste ante la colonización hispana y la independencia de México (Siglos XVI al XIX). Nuevas miradas desde las fronteras culturales y geopolíticas. November 9, 2020 - November 10, 2020.
  • Discussant, Seminar on Naciones entre fronteras: hacia una historia de la violencia (México-Estados Unidos, siglos XVIII-XX). October 29, 2020 - October 30, 2020.
  • Discussant, Annual Meeting of The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America. October 1, 2020 - October 29, 2020.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Louie Valencia’s Western Civilization (History 2320) class on “Interwar European Culture”. October 22, 2020.
  • Chair, Panel on “Immigration and Identity in Spanish and Mexican California” at the Western History Association 60th Annual Conference. October 17, 2020.
  • Organizer and Chair, Panel on “Interethnic Relations in the Southwest Borderlands: New Sources and Approaches” at the Western History Association 60th Annual Conference. October 17, 2020.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Bryan Glass’s Piracy Through the Ages (HIST 4350S) class on “The Barbary Coast and Mediterranean Piracy”. March 2, 2020.

2019

  • Editorial Review Board Member, Ethnohistory. January 1, 2016 - 2019.
  • Article manuscript reviewer, Vínculos de Historia. 2019.
  • Member, Merit Raise Committee. 2018 - 2019.
  • Member, Travel Committee. 2018 - 2019.
  • Member, Senior Seminar Committee. August 2017 - 2019.
  • Member, Study Abroad Committee, Department of History, Texas State University. 2012 - 2019.
  • Chair, 8th International Colloquium on Northeastern Mexico and Texas. November 21, 2019.
  • Discussant, Annual Meeting of The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America. November 8, 2019 - November 9, 2019.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Joshua Paddison's honors class on "Comics, Cartoons, and Contested Racial Identities in U.S. History". September 20, 2019.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, International Seminar on "Las fronteras indígenas de América / Indigenous Borderlands of the Americas," Insituto de Investigaciones Históricas – Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. January 25, 2019.

2018

  • Coordinator / Organizer, International symposium "Indigenous Borderlands of the Americas / Las fronteras indígenas de América" at Texas State Unviersity. April 6, 2018 - April 7, 2018.
  • Referee in T&P, History Department, University of West Georgia. 2018.
  • Referee in T&P, History Department, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. 2018.
  • Referee in T&P, History Department, Hood College. 2018.
  • Referee in T&P, History Department, Northern Arizona University. 2018.
  • Article manuscript reviewer, Western Historical Quarterly. 2018.
  • Member, Swinney Leave Committee. 2017 - 2018.
  • Member, Local Arrangements Committee, Texas State Historical Association. 2017 - 2018.
  • Member, Castilla-La Mancha Study Group. 2015 - 2018.
  • Speaker, Presentation on "Texas Natives" to fourth-grade students at Baranoff Elementary. November 16, 2018.
  • Discussant, Annual Meeting of The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America. November 2, 2018 - November 3, 2018.
  • Organizer, Symposium "Indigenous Borderlands of the Americas". April 6, 2018 - April 7, 2018.
  • Organizer, Public lecture “Indigenous Landscapes and Colonial Boundaries: Reading Nature into Colonial Archives,” by Cynthia Radding (Gussenhoven Distinguished Professor of History and Latin American Studies, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). April 5, 2018.

2017

  • Coordinator / Organizer, International Symposium "Landscapes, Peoples, and Institutions: Constructing the Borderlands / Paisajes, gentes e instituciones. Una frontera en construcción," Center for the Study of the Southwest, Texas State Unviersity. April 1, 2017.
  • Referee in T&P, History Department, University of Colorado Denver. 2017.
  • Article manuscript reviewer, Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 2016 - 2017.
  • Member, Policies Committee, Department of History, Texas State University. 2014 - 2017.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Caroline Ritter’s class on "World Civilizations from the Seventeenth Century to the Present". October 25, 2017.
  • Discussant, Annual Meeting of The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America, Beyond the Conquest: New Approaches to the Ethnohistory of Colonial Latin America, University of California – San Diego. October 5, 2017 - October 7, 2017.
  • Content Advisor, Exhibit "A Land without Borders: The Comanche Range," Center for the Studies of the Southwest at Texas State University". January 2017 - September 2017.
  • Content Advisor and Donnor, Exhibit "A Land without Borders: The Comanche Range," developed by a team of students from the Public History Program at Texas State University, to the Comanche National Museum. September 27, 2017.
  • Commentator, Seminario de Avances de Investigación del Centro de Estudios Históricos del Colegio de Michoacán. September 20, 2017 - September 22, 2017.
  • Organizer, Symposium "Landscapes, Peoples, and Institutions: Constructing the Borderlands". April 1, 2017.
  • Organizer, Public lecture “A Fresh Look at the Fort Parker Raid of 1836,” by Daniel Gelo (Professor of Anthropology, Stumberg Distinguished University Chair, and Dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts at the University of Texas at San Antonio). March 29, 2017.
  • Chair, Panel “A Tale of Two Bayous: Preservation and Conservation in Houston.” Annual Meeting of the Texas State Historical Association. March 4, 2017.

2016

  • Article manuscript reviewer, Signos Históricos (journal). 2016.
  • Book manuscript reviewer, Routledge. 2015 - 2016.
  • Article manuscript reviewer, Ethnohistory (journal). December 1, 2015 - 2016.
  • Discussant, Annual Meeting of The Southwest Seminar Consortium on Colonial Latin America, Texas Christian University. October 13, 2016 - October 15, 2016.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Kyle Goyette’s class on the "History of the United States until 1877". October 10, 2016.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Jason Mellard’s class on "Texas History". April 12, 2016.
  • Organizer, Symposium "Opportunity and Adaptation across the US-Mexico Borderlands". February 27, 2016.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, Symposium ¨"Opportunity and Adaptation across the US-Mexico Borderlands," Texas State Unviersity. February 27, 2016.
  • Speaker, Presentation on "North American Natives" to first-grade students at Baranoff Elementary. February 3, 2016.
  • Organizer, Public reading by author Octavio Pimentel of his book Historias de Éxito within Mexican Communities: Silenced Voices. January 27, 2016.

2015

  • Member, British History Search Committee, Department of History, Texas State University. 2014 - 2015.
  • Other, Groundwork for study abroad program in Spain. 2013 - 2015.
  • Organizer and Chair, Panel on "Indigenous Territoriality and Ethnogenesis in the Greater Southwest during the Eighteenth Century" at the 2015 Meeting of the American Society for Ethnohistory. November 2015.
  • Speaker, Presentation on "The Spanish Roots of Texas" to fourth-grade students at Baranoff Elementary. November 16, 2015.
  • Organizer and Chair, Panel on "Lo medieval en la América hispana / The 'Medieval' in the Spanish Americas" at the XXV Texas Medieval Association Annual Meeting. October 2015.
  • Chair, Panel on "Misiones y Culturas" at the international colloquium Las fronteras coloniales en América. October 27, 2015.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, Annual Meeting of the Southwest Seminar on Colonial Latin America. October 22, 2015 - October 24, 2015.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Dr. Jeffrey Helgeson's class on the "History of the United States until 1877". September 14, 2015.
  • Chair, Panel on "Drugs, Medicine, and Spirituality in Latin America" at 2015 Annual Meetings of the Southwest Council of Latin American Studies. March 13, 2015.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Robert Marshall's class on the "History of the United States until 1877". February 3, 2015.

2014

  • Book manuscript reviewer, Andrés Reséndez's book manuscript The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016). 2014.
  • Book manuscript reviewer, Miguel Ángel González Quiroga's book manuscript War and Peace on the Rio Grande Frontier (in press with Texas A&M University Press). 2014.
  • Member, Graduate Studies Committee. 2013 - 2014.
  • Organizer, Public Lecture “In Search of the Spanish Past: Ships, Sailors and Sources in the Early Modern Period,” by Professor Carla Rahn Phillips (Union Pacific Professor of Comparative Early Modern History [Emerita], University of Minnesota), Texas State University. November 3, 2014.
  • Mentor, Instructional observation and report on Jeffrey Mauck's class on the "History of the United States until 1877". September 10, 2014.

2013

  • Member, Nominating Committee. 2010 - 2013.
  • Participant, “Immigration to Spain,” during the “Spanish Night” of the 2013 International Film Festival organized by the Department of Modern Languages. April 4, 2013.

2012

  • Introduced and discussed the film The Searchers at a History Club Movie Night. 2012.
  • Book manuscript reviewer, University of North Texas Press. 2012.
  • Speaker, Presentation on "North American Natives" to first-grade students at Baranoff Elementary. November 16, 2012.
  • Welcome Speaker, 8th Annual Celebration of the People Powwow, Texas State University, San Marcos. November 14, 2012.
  • Speaker, 8th Annual Celebration of the People Powwow, Texas State University. November 14, 2012.
  • Organizer, Public Lecture “Philip II of Spain and Elizabeth I of England: The Fight for Hegemony in Europe and the Atlantic” by Professor Porfirio Sanz Camañes (University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain). September 21, 2012.
  • Chair, Panel on “Imperial and Nationalist Perspectives on Colonial Latin America,” at the Annual Meetings of the Southwest Council of Latin American Studies. March 9, 2012.

2011

  • Member, Chair Nominating Committee. 2010 - 2011.
  • Member, Military History Search Committee. 2010 - 2011.

2010

  • Member, Awards Committee. 2009 - 2010.
  • Chair, Panel on “Las familias pluriétnicas: un fenómeno compartido en la Nueva España" at the Primer seminario metodológico de la Red de Historia Demográfica on "Familias pluriétnicas y mestizaje”. June 19, 2010.

2009

  • Article manuscript reviewer, Estudios Mexicanos / Mexican Studies (journal). 2009.
  • Coordinator / Organizer, Panel on “(Inter-)Dependence and Accommodation: Eighteenth-Century European-Indian Relations in the Northernmost Provinces of New Spain” for the 2009 Annual Meetings of the Texas State Historical Association. March 28, 2009.

2008

  • Introduced and discussed the film The Black Robe at a History Club Movie Night. 2008.

2007

  • Article manuscript reviewer, Colonial Latin American Historical Review. 2007.

2005

  • Article manuscript reviewer, American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 2004 - 2005.

1996

  • Volunteer, Archaeological fieldwork. 1990 - 1996.

1993

  • Military Service, Military Police Company 14, Spanish Infantry. May 1992 - February 1993.