Univ in the Arts and the Shakespeare Society present

An evening at Univ with Rebecca F Kuang

Monday, 21 October 2024, from 5.30pm
University College, Oxford

In conversation with Professor Joe Moshenska, Univ Chapel, 5.30pm, followed by drinks from 6.30pm and dinner in the Alington Room at 7.15pm. The drinks and dinner will be hosted by the Master, Baroness Valerie Amos.

Members of Univ are invited to an evening at Univ with #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling novelist Rebecca F Kuang, (2019, MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies), the multiple-award-winning author of Yellowface, Babel and The Poppy War trilogy.

Rebecca’s latest novel Yellowface is a razor-sharp darkly humorous satire about cultural appropriation and the publishing industry, which was named Fiction Book of the Year at the 2024 British Book Awards.

Much of the plot of Babel takes place in Univ – but within an alternative history in which the university is home to Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation from which the power of the Empire flows. Babel is both an Oxford-set fantasy novel, and an interrogation of the fantasies to which Oxford has long given rise, including their colonial and racist underpinnings. It was Fiction Book of the Year at the 2023 British Book Awards.

The Poppy War trilogy is an epic fantasy inspired by twentieth-century Chinese history, filled with magic, treachery and revenge. It is the tale of Rin, a war orphan admitted to an exclusive military academy whose rise to extraordinary power not only transforms her own life but also determines the fate of millions.

There will be plenty of time for questions from the audience during the discussion with Rebecca in the Univ Chapel (which features in Babel). Signed copies of Rebecca’s books, provided by Blackwell’s, will be available to purchase during the drinks after the event (N.B. books are not included in the ticket price).

Rebecca F Kuang

Photo by by Julian Baumann 2023 (detail)

Rebecca F Kuang (2019, MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies) has won the Nebula, Locus, Crawford and British Book Awards. A Marshall Scholar, she has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge in addition to her MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford, and is pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale. Her next novel is Katabasis, in which two rival Cambridge academics must join forces as they journey through hell to rescue the soul of their advisor. Read more

Professor Joe Moshenska

Professor Joe Moshenska is the Beaverbrook and Bouverie Tutorial Fellow in English at University College and Professor of English Literature at Oxford. He is the author of four books, most recently Making Darkness Light, an experimental biography of John Milton. He is currently working on a book about the impact of the work of Spinoza on writers from George Eliot and James Joyce to Jorge Luis Borges and P G Wodehouse. Read more

Tickets

Discussion in Univ Chapel followed by drinks and nibbles: £20 for Old Members and Friends, £15 for Young Univ (members aged 35 and under), £10 for Academics and Staff, free for Students

Discussion, drinks and nibbles followed by dinner in the Alington room: £75 for Old Members and Friends, Academics and Staff, £50 for Young Univ and free for Students

Tickets for Students and members of Young Univ have kindly been subsidised by the Shakespeare Society.

Booking

You are welcome to come to the discussion and drinks only, or to stay for dinner with Rebecca as well. Please book your place by 14 October 2024 using the links below.

Please let us know about any dietary requirements when you book.

If you have any questions about access, contact the Development, Communications and Alumni Relations office via rsvp@univ.ox.ac.uk.

Please note that audio, photographs and video footage may be taken throughout our events. These may be used by the College for marketing and publicity in our publications, on our website and in social media or in any third party publication. Please contact the event organiser if you have any concerns or if you wish to be exempted from this activity.