Welcome to CHTNUK
Founded by Carissa Chew in 2021, the Cultural Heritage Terminology Network promotes cross-institutional collaboration on inclusive description issues. If you are looking for practical guidance on how to identify and address the presence of harmful imagery and discriminatory language across heritage collections, catalogues, websites, and exhibitions, you are in the right place!
GET INVOLVED
The Cultural Heritage Terminology Network is a space for practice sharing. Whether you have an unresolved terminology query or want to discuss current praxis, there are a number of ways in which you can get involved and support the network:
- Check out our Discussion Forum. Feel free to introduce yourself, connect with the community, and if you have a query about terminology or praxis you can post it here.
- Help to answer other people’s queries. Whether you have training or lived experience relating to an issue, we would love to hear your thoughts!
- Got something to say or want to share an example of current praxis? Head to our blog feature where you can submit a post and comment on others.
- Contribute your knowledge to the Inclusive Terminology Glossary, a collaborative google document that relies on crowdsourcing.
- Have you found a useful EDI resource that is missing from our website? Send it to culturalheritageterminology@gmail.com
- Show your appreciation by donating to the project or hire Carissa to give a workshop at your institution.
- Join our mailing list to stay up to date with CHTNUK news and events.
- Engage with CHTNUK on Slack, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok!
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Carissa Chew is a History PhD Student and Teaching Assistant at the University of Hawai‛i at Mānoa. Her academic research explores the identities of people of mixed Black and South Asian heritage in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda in the period 1940-1980. After graduating with a first class BA in English Literature and History from the University of Edinburgh, Carissa completed an MPhil in World History at the University of Cambridge. From September 2020 to June 2021, Carissa worked as the Equalities, Diversity, and Inclusion Intern at the National Library of Scotland. It was during this time that she founded CHTNUK and created the Inclusive Terminology Glossary. Carissa now works freelance as an Inclusive Metadata Consultant, most recently completing projects with Glasgow School of Art Library and The Imperial War Museums.
Terminology Guidance
The Inclusive Terminology Glossary provides guidance on discriminatory and harmful language relating to race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, and disability. Please contribute to this collaborative project, designed to help heritage professionals create accurate and inclusive metadata, exhibition text, advisory notices, and other resources.
EDI Resources
CHTNUK is the home for inclusive description resources. Working on something new? Send it to us! It is essential that we share good practice and learn from one another, building on the foundational work that has already been taking place across the sector. Whether it is cataloguing guidance, professional training opportunities, or examples of advisory notices and content filters that you are looking for, you will find it all here.
Carissa Chew, the creator of the Inclusive Terminology Glossary and the founder of CHTNUK, offers online talks and workshops on inclusive cataloguing and reparative description.
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