Program Affiliations

Humanities, Hispanic Studies

Biography

Dr. Rincon, Professor of Humanities and Regents Professor of the A&M University System, has led numerous student exchange programs to Barcelona, Mexico, Colombia, Perú, and Costa Rica. She has been awarded grants by the 100K US Dept. of State and Mexico’s Bilateral Forum on Higher Education, Proyecta 100K. The US Dept. of State invited her this week to be part of the team to to review proposals for the 100,000 Strong in the Americas STEM Alliance Grant Competition. Her next project includes creating ateam from A&M Texarkana, the City of Texarkana, Universidad de Guanajuato, and the Ministry of International Affairs of the State of Guanajuato (Mexico) to document the history of Mexican Americans in the Texas-Arkansas (TX/AR) Bi-State region.

Professional Experience

I was a professor of ESL Education and Bilingual Education until the restructuring of the education program in the 2025. In addition to Spanish as a foreign language, at the beginning of my tenure at A&M Texarkana, I was an Assistant Profesor of Linguistics at the MA level, until the program was closed.  I am a full time professor of Humanities and have been teaching in this field for 5 years now.

Education

I have a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Ball State University (BSU) (Muncie IN, 2004), an MA in TESOL and an MA in Spanish from BSU as well, as well as a BA in foreign Languages from Universidad Industrial de Santander (Colombia, 1994).

Teaching

Right now, I am really engaged with and love teaching “Intro to the Humanties!”

I try to engage in meaningful conversations (in person and online forums). We reflect on life and humanity, on questions such as “where is our humanity”, pr “why are we here”? , what is our role as citizens in a democratic society? I value the opportunity to inspire curiosity, empathy, and thoughtful engagement with the complex issues that shape their lives and society.

Scholarship & Creative Activity

I partnered with Universidad Industrial de Santander (Colombia) to conduct research on the rural varieties of Spanish in the country’s Department of Santander, including the study of the prosodic features of the Spanish varieties in the Andean provinces. I follow a geolinguistic approach by incorporating the spatial dimension into language study from an interdisciplinary perspective, characterized by scientific eclecticism and an emphasis  on the spatial processes and structures of language.

Selected Scholarship and Creative Endeavors

Seminar presentation: XI INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR on Geomatics, the Environment, and Hydraulic, Oct. 2023 (virtual presentation from the City of Tunja, Colombia): PI, Dr. Rincon directed the institutions’ international student presentation at the seminar.

Awarded the 2022 100K White House Strong in the Americas Grant: U.S.-Andean Innovation Fund. Grant sponsored by the US Department of State, Colombia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, and Partners of the Americas.

Awarded the 2016-2017 White House Round 4 of the 100K Strong Americas Grant (A&M Texarkana and Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga). Student participation in Environmental Stations program.

100K Strong in the America’s Capacity Building Workshop, Panelist at breakout session Partnership Building Across Borders. Denver, Colorado (May, 2016).

Awarded the 2015, 2016, and 2017, Mexico’s Bilateral Forum on Higher Education grant for Proyecta 100,000 —Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation in the “Training Program for Proyecta 100,000 Students.

Lead Speaker, US Dept of State & Partners of the Americas—Colombia’s Ministry of Education,100K Strong in the Americas Webinars (In November, 2024 and again in January, 2025).

Guest speaker at the International Congress of El Español Hablado en Colombia. October 28, 2021.

TABE, Texas Association of Bilingual Education: The Biliterate Trajectory of English and Spanish Dominant Students in Biliteracy Programs. Moved to virtual presentation, Fall 2020

Selected Publications

Peer Reviewer for the Journal Lengua y Sociedad: Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada
Lima, Perú. Article Title: Evolución metodológica de las propuestas de clasificación dialectal del español colombiano, October 2026.

Rincón, L. M., Barragán Gómez, R. A., Olave Arias, G., Jaimes Mogollón, M. V. [and others]. (2026). El español de Colombia: Lengua, norma, habla. Bucaramanga: Universidad Industrial de Santander.

Rincón, L. (2022). Espacio y espacialidad en el español santandereano: propuesta de división regional dialectal. Cuadernos de Lingüística Hispánica, (39), e14369. Tunja: Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia.

Rincón, L. M. (2021). Estudio de espacialidad del español rural de Santander (Colombia): contextualización teórica y conceptual. Forma y Función, 34(1). Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia. https://doi.org/10.15446/fyf. v34n1.81256.

Professional Affiliations & Service

Modern Language Association (MLA); Homeless Coallition--City of Texarkana.

Recent Presentations, Public Talks

Region 8 ESC, Professional Development Workshop “Bringing Language to Life in the LOTE classroom,” at Region 8 ESC Pittsburg, TX, Oct. 14, 2025.

Region 8 ESC, Professional Development Workshop “Bringing Language to Life in the LOTE classroom,” Red Lick Middle School, Texarkana, TX, July 23, 2025

US Dept of State--Partner of the Americas and 100K of the America’s Innovation Fund: Speaker at International Webinar on “How to apply to the 100K Strong in the Americas--United States and Colombia” (Nov. 2024 and Jan. 2025)

Lead Speaker, US Dept of State & Partners of the Americas—Colombia’s Ministry of Education,100K Strong in the Americas Webinars (In November, 2024 and again in January, 2025).