At which university did J.R.R. Tolkien teach before joining Oxford University?

Before joining Oxford University, J.R.R. Tolkien taught at the University of Leeds. He became a reader in English Language at Leeds in 1920 and was promoted to professor of English Language in 1924.

Tolkien’s Leeds period was important professionally and creatively. He worked with fellow scholar E.V. Gordon on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a major edition published in 1925. He also helped establish the Viking Club, an informal student and staff group interested in literature, languages, and storytelling.

In 1925 Tolkien left Leeds for Oxford, where he became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon. His later Oxford appointments and friendships made the university closely associated with his career, but Leeds was the earlier university where he held his first major academic teaching posts. This distinction is often overlooked when his biography is summarized only through his Oxford years.