At which university did J.R.R. Tolkien teach as a professor?

J.R.R. Tolkien taught as a professor at the University of Oxford.

He held several academic posts there. In 1925 he became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, a position he held until 1945. He then became Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, retiring from that chair in 1959.

Tolkien’s academic career was closely connected with his creative work. His scholarship focused on languages and medieval texts, especially Old English and Middle English. His 1936 lecture “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics” helped change how the poem was studied by emphasizing its artistic structure rather than treating it only as historical evidence. Tolkien also taught at the University of Leeds earlier in his career, so Oxford was not his only university appointment, but it was the institution most strongly associated with his long academic career and public reputation.