CIPPM’s Claudy Op den Kamp presented at the University of Udine’s PhD programme on 21 November 2025, addressing doctoral candidates in Art History, Film and Media Studies, and Music.

The presentation, titled ‘FIRST: Archival Encounters That Set History in Motion,’ explored how videographic scholarship can challenge traditional academic gatekeeping and make research more accessible beyond conventional scholarly circles.

Op den Kamp screened a work-in-progress video essay from her forthcoming videographic monograph, which traces the 130-year archival life of The Blacksmith Shop—the first film registered for U.S. copyright in 1893, which she identified during her 2022 Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress.

The project weaves together two narratives: the emergence of cinema and copyright law in the 1890s, and Op den Kamp’s contemporary journey through archives attempting to reconstruct that history. Using an epistolary format addressing 19th-century Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford, the work humanises both historical subjects and research processes while making archival gatekeeping visible.

The presentation aligned with the PhD programme’s annual theme: ‘Archive: Access, Re-use, Ethics.’ Drawing together researchers from medieval art to contemporary media studies, the session generated discussion about who controls cultural heritage narratives and how scholarly methods can democratise access to historical knowledge.