What academic position did C.S. Lewis take at Cambridge University in 1954?

C.S. Lewis became the first professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University in 1954. The appointment marked his move from Oxford, where he had taught at Magdalen College since 1925.

At Cambridge, Lewis was associated with Magdalene College, a different institution from Oxford’s Magdalen College. The similar names are a frequent source of confusion: Oxford has Magdalen College, while Cambridge has Magdalene College. Lewis held the Cambridge professorship until his death in 1963.

The position reflected his expertise as a literary scholar rather than his public role as a Christian apologist or children’s author. His academic work included studies of medieval and Renaissance literature, and his scholarly book English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama was published in 1954. His Cambridge appointment gave institutional recognition to the field in which he had built his career.