Biography
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.
Research Interests
Mozarabs, Mudéjar, Morisco.
Language in Medieval Iberia.
Language Contact and Change.
Religious Diversity
Language in Medieval Iberia.
Language Contact and Change.
Religious Diversity
Teaching Interests
Spanish Linguistics: Syntax, Phonetics, Language Acquisition
History of the Spanish Language, Dialectology
Spanish in the Professions
Community Engagement Learning
History of the Spanish Language, Dialectology
Spanish in the Professions
Community Engagement Learning