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This essay troubles the romanticized US American “nation of immigrants” narrative through its relationship to Black diasporic histories of migration. The Immigration Act of 1924 codified white ethnocentrism in US American citizenship rights, and thus represented a potential challenge to Black American citizenship claims. Here we reflect on Black American rhetorical practices as a mode of worldmaking; of laying claim to putatively white space and US American citizenship. Through this lens, Black migration and consequent transformation of space functions as a transgressive practice for a people who are perpetually positioned outside of nationality, a way of reclaiming ownership over the spoils of unwilling labor. These Black rhetorical practices echo through the diaspora, as those who built but do not own push back against the ontological negation of ethnonationalist citizenship and immigration policies dictated by white and western imperial powers, in favor of speaking themselves into belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate how curator goals influence the design of curation processes for collections of mental health lived experience narratives. The objectives were (1) to characterize the goals of a range of curators of existing collections, and (2) to identify specific working practices impacted by these goals., Research Design and Methods: Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of curators of collections of lived experience narratives. Thematic analysis was conducted. Goals and impacts on working practice were tabulated, and narrative summaries were constructed to describe the relation between the two., Results: Curators interviewed were from seven countries (Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Italy, UK, USA), and 60% had lived experience of mental health service usage. Participants discussed eight goals that inspired their work: fighting stigma, campaigning for change in service provision, educating about mental health and recovery, supporting others in their recovery journey, critiquing psychiatry, influencing policy, marketing health services, and reframing mental illness. These goals influenced how decisions were made about inclusion of narratives, editing of narrative content, withdrawal rights, and anonymization., Conclusions: Our work will support the development of curatorship as a professional practice by shaping training for curators, helping curators reflect on the outcomes they would like to achieve, and helping individuals planning a collection to reflect on their motivations. We argue that transparency is an essential orientation for curators. Transparency allows narrators to make an informed choice about donating a narrative. It allows policy makers to understand the influences on a collection and hence treat it as a source of collective evidence., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest to disclose.