Culture

Barry Spurr Has Officially Resigned From The University of Sydney

You'll have to learn about "whimsical linguistic games" from someone else.

by Meg Watson  18 December 2014

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Two months after New Matilda uncovered a big ol’ bunch of racist and sexist rants in Barry Spurr’s emails, the disgraced poetry professor and unflattering selfie taker has tendered his resignation to the University of Sydney. And, after conducting an internal investigation into the matter and being swept up in a media shitstorm, it should come as no surprise that USyd has wholeheartedly accepted it.

Soz budding undergrads, you’ll have to learn about “whimsical linguistic games” from someone else.

The news was announced via a two-sentence media release issued by the University this morning, and not much more is known yet. “At Professor Spurr’s request, the University will provide no further comment on the matter,” the statement reads.

The resignation comes just over a week after reports of a settlement between the professor and the organisation that first broke the story. Though Spurr was suing New Matilda and its owner Chris Graham for breaching his privacy, the news organisation have recently issued a statement to their readers reporting that both parties had “agreed to settle their dispute, on confidential terms”. “Both parties are satisfied with the outcome,” they said.

Despite Spurr’s original requests, the original article is still on the site and the source who leaked the emails has not been named.

Spurr has however won a temporary injunction against the site which means no more of his email correspondence will be published. Despite the reported TWO YEARS worth of content that was discovered by New Matilda, our knowledge of the emails will be confined to the initial report. However, as we already know he labelled a female victim of sexual assault a “worthless slut”, liberally used racist slurs liks “Mussies” and “Chinky-poos” and called Aboriginal people “human rubbish tips”, that’s probably a good thing.

I think we get the gist of it by now.