What university did C.S. Lewis teach at from 1954?

From 1954, C.S. Lewis taught at the University of Cambridge. He became the first holder of the newly established chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and remained there until his death in 1963.

Lewis had already spent most of his academic career at the University of Oxford. He studied at University College, Oxford, and later held teaching fellowships at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he worked for many years. His move to Cambridge did not mean that Oxford ceased to be important: it remained central to his friendships, scholarship, and literary circle.

The Cambridge appointment recognized Lewis as a major scholar of older literature. His academic work included studies of medieval allegory, literary history, and the English Renaissance. He continued writing popular books and fiction while holding the chair.

A frequent mistake is to name Oxford because Lewis is so strongly associated with it. Oxford was his earlier and longer academic home, but the specific appointment beginning in 1954 was at Cambridge. His Cambridge post was at Magdalene College, not King’s College or Trinity College.