Abstract This article discusses how aesthetic representations of immigrant detention generate affects and empathy in U.S. college students. It describes a qualitative study that suggests that aesthetic representations provoke affective responses and, to some degree, empathy for migrants, in turn contributing to these students’ civic engagement. These responses speak to the presence of what I term “border affects,” a dimension of affective cartography that is produced by and, in turn, reproduces a cultural imaginary that situates the citizen’s relationship to migration and has the power to both override and promote empathy. These affects suggest that the southern border is not an ontological category that is implicitly known, extant, or eternal but a cognitive phenomenon filtered through experience.

中文翻译：

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影响的边界：动员边界意象作为公民参与

摘要 本文讨论了移民拘留的审美表现如何在美国大学生中产生影响和同理心。它描述了一项定性研究，该研究表明审美表现会引发情感反应，并在某种程度上激发对移民的同情，进而促进这些学生的公民参与。这些反应说明了我所说的“边界影响”的存在，这是情感制图的一个维度，它由一种文化想象产生，反过来，它再现了一种文化想象，这种想象定位公民与移民的关系，并有能力超越和促进同理心. 这些影响表明，南部边界不是隐含地知道、现存或永恒的本体论范畴，而是通过经验过滤的认知现象。