Australian breaker and Paris Olympics dancer Raygun loses Macquarie University job
“Can you do this for a living?”
That’s her typical reaction when she tells people about her career, Dr Rachael “Raygun” Gunn said ahead of her Paris Olympics debut.
But Gunn can no longer say he is studying “the performance of hyper-masculinity and the aesthetics of hip hop culture and sport in Australia” after being expelled from Macquarie University this week.
Gunn rose to global fame after the 2024 Games; kangaroo leaps, twists and the Australian tracksuit failed to receive a single point from the judges in the sport’s Olympic debut.
“I wanted to do something artistic and creative. How many chances do you get in your lifetime to do something on the international stage? It was important for me to perform the performance I did.”
It quickly became a meme and subsequently became the biggest story of the Games; An Australian dancer-turned-professor who was eliminated in the first stage of the competition due to her strange styles.
Gunn may be the only Australian female breaker to dance at the Olympics, as the event is not included in the Los Angeles 2028 programme.
“I wanted to make an impression in a different way,” he told reporters after the event.
“My chances were always very slim, but I still pushed hard to represent my best.”
Gunn’s major research outputs included articles titled “The Night Paradox: How breakdancing unlocks the potentials of the night”, “Reintroducing Gender Norms through Breakdancing” and “‘Relay systems’ in breakdancing”. to do cultural studies: b-experimenting with the ‘Body Without Organs’ in girlhood practices.”
Gunn has been at Macquarie since completing his undergraduate degree more than a decade ago; He has been teaching media and cultural studies there for the last five years.
Gunn’s dismissal stems from the university’s art department making sweeping cuts; vice-chancellor Bruce Dowton told a parliamentary inquiry earlier this month that there was unfair focus on faculty.
“Many things were taken into consideration as we moved towards proposing changes… funding model changes, regulatory environment, international student decline etc but also the fact that demand for courses in the Faculty of Arts has changed,” he said.
The head of the investigation, Dr. Sarah Kaine raised concerns about “fake redundancies” at the Faculty of Arts as some courses previously taught by a departing staff member were now being taught by lay people.
Gunn hit headlines again in 2024 when he demanded $10,000 from a Sydney comedy club appearance. Musical Raygun.
Gunn has been contacted for comment. Macquarie University said it could not comment on “confidential employment arrangements”.
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