Alba Hermida Rodríguez (°1998) is an FWO-funded PhD student investigating language vitality and endangerment in Indigenous communities of the Bolivian Chaco. Her project examines the sociohistorical and linguistic factors influencing language maintenance and decline in Bésɨro (isolate, possibly Macro-Jê) and Bolivian Guaraní (Tupi-Guaraní). With a BA in Hispanic Linguistics and Literature from Salamanca University (Spain) and an MA in Linguistics from Leiden University (The Netherlands), she specialized in descriptive and anthropological linguistics of South American Indigenous languages. Her research focuses on linguistic obsolescence, exploring the dynamics behind language death and shift in the Gran Chaco region.
