Mapping the Road Towards Archival Justice: inclusive terminology and colonial archives

Description

An online public event at the Cambridge Cultural Heritage Data School convened by the (Anti) Colonial Archives Working Group 

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Developing inclusive terminology for the purpose of creating catalogues and archival descriptions is a major challenge for cultural heritage professionals. Standardisation of categories and labels for collections is an essential part of rendering their contents visible, but at the same time can mean that offensive or discriminatory language becomes institutionalised and resistant to challenge. Yet simply changing terminology to reflect principles of equality, diversity and inclusion does not solve the problem for memory institutions. For instance, institutions must also assure that historical language is available to researchers, scholars, and cultural activists to make apparent the full scope of the historical record. At the same time, they must also recognize how these languages and practices exacerbate inequalities.

This round-table will bring together practitioners from a range of cultural heritage institutions in the UK and beyond to share experiences of developing glossaries and inclusive terminology guidelines, resources and working groups. We will also explore the role of automated topic detection in the archive and ask whether computational approaches to search, presentation and contextualisation of archival materials can be fully inclusive.

Round-table speakers:

• Marta Musso (Archives Portal Europe)
• Stephen Rigden (National Library of Scotland)
• Dorothy Sebbowa (Makerere University)

Chair:

• Anne Alexander