What was C.S. Lewis’s academic position at Cambridge’s Magdalene College?

C.S. Lewis was Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge’s Magdalene College.

Cambridge University created the chair for Lewis in 1954, after he had spent nearly three decades teaching at Oxford. He held the position until his retirement in 1963. The appointment recognized his scholarship in medieval and Renaissance literature, even though his popular reputation increasingly rested on fiction and Christian writing.

At Magdalene College, Lewis continued academic work while writing books such as Reflections on the Psalms and Studies in Words. His inaugural lecture, “De Descriptione Temporum,” defended the value of older literature and criticized assumptions that the modern age represented simple intellectual progress.

The Cambridge institution was Magdalene College, spelled with a final “e,” not Oxford’s Magdalen College. Lewis’s move did not mean he abandoned Oxford entirely; he retained close friendships and connections there. The two colleges’ nearly identical names often cause errors in accounts of his career.