A.J. McCaffrey
@ajmccaffrey.bsky.social
Composer, teacher, stuff. Writing music that’s either weirdly pretty or pretty weird. ajmccaffrey.com
Pinned
A.J. McCaffrey
@ajmccaffrey.bsky.social
· Nov 29
Implied Airs over an imaginary Drone
A. J. McCaffrey, Erica Wise · Bach Inspired, Cello Suites & McCaffrey · Song · 2023
open.spotify.com
I’m so happy with how this collaboration turned out - my solo cello piece for Erica Wise, streaming now!
open.spotify.com/track/5fgxIy...
open.spotify.com/track/5fgxIy...
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
The Republican president is a pedophile who has doubled my healthcare costs and let scores of violent criminals out of jail. But a Democratic mayor-elect wants to make busses free in a city I don't live in. I have never felt more politically homeless.
November 13, 2025 at 12:47 PM
The Republican president is a pedophile who has doubled my healthcare costs and let scores of violent criminals out of jail. But a Democratic mayor-elect wants to make busses free in a city I don't live in. I have never felt more politically homeless.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
working on a new unified theory of american reality i'm calling "everyone is twelve now"
September 8, 2025 at 12:37 AM
working on a new unified theory of american reality i'm calling "everyone is twelve now"
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
The “Person who wants a political party to lose describes what that political party must do to win” genre of article is just incredibly insulting to everyone’s intelligence yet it will persist until the end of time
November 2, 2025 at 2:38 PM
The “Person who wants a political party to lose describes what that political party must do to win” genre of article is just incredibly insulting to everyone’s intelligence yet it will persist until the end of time
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
I was at my old high school today, for the first time in over twenty years, to talk to the teachers about how their curriculum can better support students. AI came up, and so many teachers were saying "Well it's a tool, they have to know how to use it, it's the future so we have to accept it!"
October 16, 2025 at 2:50 AM
I was at my old high school today, for the first time in over twenty years, to talk to the teachers about how their curriculum can better support students. AI came up, and so many teachers were saying "Well it's a tool, they have to know how to use it, it's the future so we have to accept it!"
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
This is the thing about student course evaluations—they were never originally intended as measures of teaching quality. That purpose was stapled onto them later.
Evaluation is important and we have good ways of evaluating instructors (observations, audits, mentoring). But the evidence is clear that asking students to Yelp review their instructors the week before exams yields no valuable information on teaching or learning--just customer satisfaction.
July 31, 2025 at 4:05 PM
This is the thing about student course evaluations—they were never originally intended as measures of teaching quality. That purpose was stapled onto them later.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
If you work in higher ed, you need to get your folks together and end the use of course evals or at least bar their consideration in evaluation, promotion, and hiring. This needed to happen yesterday because they don't measure learning, they measure instructor gender, but now it's a snitch pool.
July 31, 2025 at 12:41 AM
If you work in higher ed, you need to get your folks together and end the use of course evals or at least bar their consideration in evaluation, promotion, and hiring. This needed to happen yesterday because they don't measure learning, they measure instructor gender, but now it's a snitch pool.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
there's an actual genre of analysis that acknowledges that for generations people used to buy and sell other humans, aided by a comprehensive system of apartheid that continued for generations later, but nevertheless blames the resurgence of open bigotry on a decade or so of cringe Tumblr posts
July 22, 2025 at 4:59 PM
there's an actual genre of analysis that acknowledges that for generations people used to buy and sell other humans, aided by a comprehensive system of apartheid that continued for generations later, but nevertheless blames the resurgence of open bigotry on a decade or so of cringe Tumblr posts
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
Absolutely brilliant.
July 19, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Absolutely brilliant.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
A philosophy professor was assaulted and abducted by ICE while protesting the agency's raid on a farm near his university.
Philosophy Professor Reportedly Assaulted & Abducted During ICE Raid on Farm - Daily Nous
Jonathan Caravello, a lecturer in philosophy at California State University Channel Islands, was reportedly "piled on by multiple agents all at once" as "he tried to help a man in a wheelchair" who wa...
dailynous.com
July 12, 2025 at 3:16 PM
A philosophy professor was assaulted and abducted by ICE while protesting the agency's raid on a farm near his university.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
People living under fascism didn’t survive by giving up joy—they protected it.
They held onto the things fascism tried to erase: art, friendship, jokes, rituals, language, memory.
Not as escapism but as resistance. As proof they were still human.
Joy isn’t frivolous under fascism. It’s strategic.
They held onto the things fascism tried to erase: art, friendship, jokes, rituals, language, memory.
Not as escapism but as resistance. As proof they were still human.
Joy isn’t frivolous under fascism. It’s strategic.
July 4, 2025 at 5:01 AM
People living under fascism didn’t survive by giving up joy—they protected it.
They held onto the things fascism tried to erase: art, friendship, jokes, rituals, language, memory.
Not as escapism but as resistance. As proof they were still human.
Joy isn’t frivolous under fascism. It’s strategic.
They held onto the things fascism tried to erase: art, friendship, jokes, rituals, language, memory.
Not as escapism but as resistance. As proof they were still human.
Joy isn’t frivolous under fascism. It’s strategic.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
Thank you @washingtonpost.com
“Once it was mostly a taco website.
Now it's covering L.A. ICE raids. L.A. Taco has become a formidable media outlet amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the resulting protests.”
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
“Once it was mostly a taco website.
Now it's covering L.A. ICE raids. L.A. Taco has become a formidable media outlet amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the resulting protests.”
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Once it was mostly a taco website. Now it’s covering L.A. ICE raids.
L.A. Taco has become a formidable media outlet amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the resulting protests.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 4, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Thank you @washingtonpost.com
“Once it was mostly a taco website.
Now it's covering L.A. ICE raids. L.A. Taco has become a formidable media outlet amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the resulting protests.”
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
“Once it was mostly a taco website.
Now it's covering L.A. ICE raids. L.A. Taco has become a formidable media outlet amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and the resulting protests.”
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
I know it seems obvious to a lot of people that an academic department without many majors must be struggling so it makes sense to cut them. But that's just not how it works. The people in that dept are the only people who can teach the classes they teach - a dept is struggling if no one takes those
July 2, 2025 at 7:47 PM
I know it seems obvious to a lot of people that an academic department without many majors must be struggling so it makes sense to cut them. But that's just not how it works. The people in that dept are the only people who can teach the classes they teach - a dept is struggling if no one takes those
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
In the spring of 2008, I feared America was on the verge of war with Iran — and, believing that it’s good style to get to know people before you bomb them, I made “Rick Steves’ Iran,” a one-hour special that could (and would) only debut on PBS. Sadly, this special has become pertinent again today.
Iran
Join Rick as he explores the most surprising and fascinating land he's ever visited: Iran. In a one-hour, ground-breaking travel special on public television, you'll discover the splendid monuments of...
www.ricksteves.com
June 17, 2025 at 9:18 PM
In the spring of 2008, I feared America was on the verge of war with Iran — and, believing that it’s good style to get to know people before you bomb them, I made “Rick Steves’ Iran,” a one-hour special that could (and would) only debut on PBS. Sadly, this special has become pertinent again today.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
I just like to post these data from time to time to puncture the mythological aura of mid 20th c protests. They were less popular than pretty much any 21st c mass action & people criticizing them used the same lines. Protest is about people coming together, shaping narratives, & building power.
June 14, 2025 at 7:02 PM
I just like to post these data from time to time to puncture the mythological aura of mid 20th c protests. They were less popular than pretty much any 21st c mass action & people criticizing them used the same lines. Protest is about people coming together, shaping narratives, & building power.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
It is 100% carrying water for the opposition to participate in this collective delusion that Dems for some reason need to answer for every teen who throws a rock rather than hold the Trump admin accountable for intentionally creating chaos and breaking the law to stoke violence.
They are in charge.
They are in charge.
June 11, 2025 at 12:44 AM
It is 100% carrying water for the opposition to participate in this collective delusion that Dems for some reason need to answer for every teen who throws a rock rather than hold the Trump admin accountable for intentionally creating chaos and breaking the law to stoke violence.
They are in charge.
They are in charge.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
The disparity btwn what’s actually happening in Los Angeles and the way it’s being mischaracterized is one of the biggest stress tests of modern media in recent memory. Botted socials, AI, old clips, declining literacy—it’s like seeing a broken emergency response system hit by a storm.
June 10, 2025 at 9:57 PM
The disparity btwn what’s actually happening in Los Angeles and the way it’s being mischaracterized is one of the biggest stress tests of modern media in recent memory. Botted socials, AI, old clips, declining literacy—it’s like seeing a broken emergency response system hit by a storm.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
Them: “LA is a full on insurrection”
Us at the protest:
Us at the protest:
June 8, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Them: “LA is a full on insurrection”
Us at the protest:
Us at the protest:
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
the revealed position of the republican party is that it thinks broad expansion of higher education — and especially its expansion for certain americans — was a mistake that must be rolled back
an overwhelming percentage of cuts at the NSF are to STEM education. experts see it as part of a broader attack on DEI, as well as on education as a whole.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/s...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/s...
Funding Cuts Are a ‘Gut Punch’ for STEM Education Researchers
www.nytimes.com
May 23, 2025 at 1:08 PM
the revealed position of the republican party is that it thinks broad expansion of higher education — and especially its expansion for certain americans — was a mistake that must be rolled back
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.
'How come I can’t breathe?': Musk's data company draws a backlash in Memphis
The company’s turbines — enough to power 280,000 homes — run without emission controls in an area that leads Tennessee in asthma hospitalizations.
www.politico.com
May 10, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Poisoning the air of a Black community for a fucking chatbot.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
It’s funny because I grew up as a Black kid during the 90s and if “people think we’re bad” was as determinative as it’s being depicted me and everyone I know should be dead by now.
It's a brutal time for young men, and to be raising one. The primary message they now is get is "YOU'RE BAD" without any meaningful attempt to offer healthy pathways beyond "Don't be a boy."
Absolutely perfect time for right wing monsters to sweep in with shitty answers.
Absolutely perfect time for right wing monsters to sweep in with shitty answers.
May 3, 2025 at 8:31 PM
It’s funny because I grew up as a Black kid during the 90s and if “people think we’re bad” was as determinative as it’s being depicted me and everyone I know should be dead by now.
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
I support the US garment industry. I don't believe in making life harder for immigrants or erecting blanket tariffs. So how can we reshore some of our US garment manufacturing without xenophobia or protectionism? Here's my view. 🧵
April 8, 2025 at 12:14 AM
I support the US garment industry. I don't believe in making life harder for immigrants or erecting blanket tariffs. So how can we reshore some of our US garment manufacturing without xenophobia or protectionism? Here's my view. 🧵
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
Love to refuse a prompt. static1.squarespace.com/static/53a4b...
March 22, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Love to refuse a prompt. static1.squarespace.com/static/53a4b...
Reposted by A.J. McCaffrey
1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world.
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.
March 19, 2025 at 7:32 PM
1. For the past thirty years I've had the best job in the world.
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.
I've had the opportunity to follow my curiosity; explore the workings of nature and society; mentor students and junior colleagues in the same process; and teach generations of students about it all.