Methods of Historical Research is a senior seminar course required of every History major at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Students spend the semester learning about the historian’s craft by doing it themselves. Spring 2020, Dr. Philis Barragán Goetz taught a section of Methods in collaboration with the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum. Students researched topics related to Black history in Bexar County, focusing on the social, cultural, and political dimensions of African Americans’ experiences. These projects help fill a gap in our understanding of San Antonio history in the colonial era, the Gilded Age and Progressive era, and the post-WWII era. Our initial plan was to organize a one-day symposium where students shared their research with the community. With the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, we cancelled the conference, and with the help of TAMUSA librarian Deirdre McDonald, turned the students' research projects into a small Digital Commons collection on Black San Antonio history.

Photo credits: Dr. Philis Barragán Goetz's 'Methods of Historical Research' class in front of the historic St. Paul Church in St. Paul Square.  Photo by Everett Fly.  Back row: Robert Grey Miller, Edward Gahan, Edwin Ocasio-Lopez, Jarred Cantú, David Harris.  Middle row: Eric Nolden, Dr. Philis Barragán Goetz, Jordan LeJeune, Patricia Garcia.  Front row: Isaac Godoy.