What was C.S. Lewis’s academic field at Cambridge University, where he became a professor in 1954?

At Cambridge University, C.S. Lewis became professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature in 1954.

The Cambridge chair was created specifically for Lewis, and he became its first holder. He joined Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he taught and continued his research into the literature and intellectual history of the medieval and Renaissance periods. The appointment followed his long academic career at Magdalen College, Oxford.

Lewis’s scholarship was closely connected with his fiction and apologetics. He studied medieval cosmology, allegory, romance, poetry, and the ways older literary traditions shaped European culture. His academic books include The Allegory of Love and English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Excluding Drama.

The Cambridge post should not be confused with his earlier Oxford position, where he was a tutor in English at Magdalen College. Lewis held the Cambridge professorship until his death in 1963, although his reputation as a Christian writer and children’s author often overshadows his professional identity as a literary scholar.