Biography and education
Yasmine Beale-Rivaya is Professor of Spanish Linguistics and Chair of the Department of World Languages & Literatures at Texas State University, San Marcos. She received her PhD in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2006. From 2021 to 2024, she held the NEH Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, supporting the development of a project focused on minority and minoritized languages.
Dr. Beale-Rivaya’s research examines language contact, change, and borrowing in borderland communities from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Her primary area of specialization is language contact between Romance and Semitic languages, particularly Andalusí Arabic, in medieval Iberia. Her work analyzes linguistic practices among communities such as Mozarabs (Arabized Christians), Mudejars (Muslims living under Christian rule), and Moriscos (Muslim converts to Christianity) who lived in politically and linguistically diverse regions from the early Middle Ages through the Early Modern period.
Her research adopts a comparative borderlands approach, examining medieval multilingual communities in the Mediterranean alongside contemporary linguistic contexts involving Spanish speakers and individuals of Spanish linguistic heritage along the U.S.–Mexico border. This comparative framework informs her investigation of how patterns associated with language minoritization appear across different historical periods.
Her Digital Humanities project, Minority and Minoritized Languages and Cultures, explores the use of digital tools to collect, analyze, and present linguistic data related to multilingual communities. Dr. Beale-Rivaya’s Digital Humanities work combines historical linguistic analysis with digital methods, including corpus-based research and digital presentation of linguistic data. Her scholarship integrates philological approaches with comparative and digital methodologies.
Dr. Beale-Rivaya’s research examines language contact, change, and borrowing in borderland communities from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Her primary area of specialization is language contact between Romance and Semitic languages, particularly Andalusí Arabic, in medieval Iberia. Her work analyzes linguistic practices among communities such as Mozarabs (Arabized Christians), Mudejars (Muslims living under Christian rule), and Moriscos (Muslim converts to Christianity) who lived in politically and linguistically diverse regions from the early Middle Ages through the Early Modern period.
Her research adopts a comparative borderlands approach, examining medieval multilingual communities in the Mediterranean alongside contemporary linguistic contexts involving Spanish speakers and individuals of Spanish linguistic heritage along the U.S.–Mexico border. This comparative framework informs her investigation of how patterns associated with language minoritization appear across different historical periods.
Her Digital Humanities project, Minority and Minoritized Languages and Cultures, explores the use of digital tools to collect, analyze, and present linguistic data related to multilingual communities. Dr. Beale-Rivaya’s Digital Humanities work combines historical linguistic analysis with digital methods, including corpus-based research and digital presentation of linguistic data. Her scholarship integrates philological approaches with comparative and digital methodologies.
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Featured grants
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Yasmine C (Principal). Faculty Summer Research Grant, Center for European Studies, Department of Education, UT-Austin, $3000. (Funded: 2015). Grant.
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Yasmine C. University Lecturers Series, $800. (Funded: 2015). Grant.
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Yasmine C (Principal). Online Resource Grant for PAO2-4 (extension to Proquest), $43650. (Funded: 2013). Grant.
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Yasmine C (Principal). University Lecturers Series, $813. (Funded: 2008). Grant.
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Yasmine C (Principal). Alkek Library Research Fund Award, $1276. (Funded: 2006). Grant.
Featured scholarly/creative works
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Y. C. (Ed.). (2024). Minority and Minoritized Languages and Cultures: A Recourse for Teaching about Languages in the Humanities. San Marcos,Texas, USA: Texas State University. Retrieved from https://pressbooks.txst.edu/minoritylanguages/
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Y. C. (n.d.). Tracing New Frontiers: Mozarabes and Toledanos as Villains in the Construction of the Spanish Cultural Imagery. In Mark of Toledo: Intellectual Context and Debates between Christians and Muslims in Early Thirteenth Century Iberia (pp. 77–98). Cordoba, Spain: UCOPress – CNERU – The Warburg Institute.
- (2019). Places of Encounter: Language, Culture, and Religious Identity in Medieval Iberia. In J. Busic & Y. C. Beale-Rosano-Rivaya (Eds.), Places of Encounter: Language, Culture, and Religious Identity in Medieval Iberia (I, Vol. 41). California, USA: E-Humanista. Retrieved from https://www.ehumanista.ucsb.edu/volumes/41
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Y., & Busic, J. (Eds.). (2018). A Companion to Medieval Toledo: Reconsidering the Canons. New Readings of Medieval Toledo (ca. 711-1517). Netherlands: Brill.
- Beale-Rosano-Rivaya, Y. C. (2018). “Shared Legal Spaces in the Arabic Language Notarial Documents of Toledo.” In A Companion to Medieval Toledo: Reconsidering the Canons. New Readings of Medieval Toledo (ca. 711-1517). (pp. 221–237). Netherlands: Brill.
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Nominee: Presidential Award for Excellence in Service, COLA Texas State University. 2016 - Present
- Award / Honor Recipient: NEH Professorship in Teaching 2021-2024, NEH. September 1, 2021 - June 30, 2024
- Award / Honor Recipient: Presidential Distinction Award, Tx State. September 1, 2021
- Award / Honor Recipient: Liberal Arts Golden Apple Award for Teaching @Professor/Associate Professor Level, Texas State University. September 1, 2021
- Award / Honor Nominee: Mariel M Muir Excellence in Mentoring, COLA Texas State University. August 2018
Featured service activities
- Member
Presidential Work-Life Committee
- Member
Continuity of Student Life Work Group-University Task Force
- Member
Student Evaluations Working Group
- Member
Humanities PhD Exploration
- Member
Liberal Arts Study Abroad Committee
- Member
Major-Minor Recruitment Committee