At which university did J.R.R. Tolkien hold his main academic posts?

J.R.R. Tolkien held his main academic posts at the University of Oxford.

Tolkien studied at Exeter College, Oxford, and later built most of his academic career there. He served as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon from 1925 to 1945 and as Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959.

His Oxford work focused especially on Old English, Middle English, philology and medieval literature. His expertise in languages and historical texts strongly influenced the invented languages, names and literary traditions of Middle-earth.

Tolkien also taught at the University of Leeds from 1920 to 1925 before returning to Oxford. This sometimes causes confusion when summaries mention Leeds, but Oxford was the institution associated with his longest and most prominent academic career. He continued to live near Oxford for much of his writing life.