This workshop was first offered in June 2015, with 14 participants and numerous guests coming together to create a memorable two weeks and an ongoing community of practice. Many participants published videographic essays that they started at that first workshop in the journal [in]Transition, via a special issue emerging from the workshop. Most participants have gone on to be active leaders in the videographic subfield.

Workshop conveners Christian Keathley and Jason Mittell published a short book, The Videographic Essay: Criticism in Sound & Image (2016), that discussed the workshop’s approach and exercises, as well as featured short pieces by workshop guests Catherine Grant, Eric Faden, and Kevin B. Lee. Keathley, Mittell, and Grant have since reworked the book into an open access resource, The Videographic Essay: Practice and Pedagogy, featuring examples from multiple iterations of the workshop, discussing the pedagogical approach, and reflecting on numerous facets of videographic practice.

Since the initial workshop, five more iterations have been offered – two additional special issues of [in]Transition have presented work from the 2017 workshop, and in total more than 45 workshop alumni have had their work published by the journal. Through the six workshops, more than 100 participants have become part of the broader community of videographic criticism, seeking to infuse their teaching and research with this emerging mode of digital scholarship. The majority of participants have regarded the Middlebury workshop as one of the highlights of their academic careers.