What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic field at the University of Leeds before Oxford?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic field at the University of Leeds was English language and literature.

Tolkien taught at the University of Leeds from 1920 to 1925. He first served as a reader in English language and later became a professor. His work there focused on the historical study of English and related languages, especially the philological traditions that also shaped his teaching and creative writing.

At Leeds, Tolkien collaborated with E.V. Gordon on an influential edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, published in 1925. The project demonstrated his close engagement with medieval English texts and helped establish his scholarly reputation before his move to Oxford.

The answer is broader than “philology,” which describes a method and scholarly discipline rather than the exact academic subject named in accounts of his Leeds appointment. Tolkien’s later Oxford posts likewise concerned Anglo-Saxon and English language and literature. His invented languages were connected to this expertise, but they were not his university teaching field as such.