What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic subject at the University of Leeds before he returned to Oxford?

At the University of Leeds, J.R.R. Tolkien taught English language and literature before returning to Oxford.

Tolkien joined Leeds in 1920 as a reader in English language and later became a professor there. His work included teaching Old and Middle English, Germanic philology, and related literary subjects. During this period he continued developing his expertise in historical linguistics while also writing and revising imaginative stories.

His Leeds years were important professionally and creatively. He collaborated with E.V. Gordon on the influential 1925 edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a Middle English romance. Tolkien also began or expanded material that would feed into his mythology during the 1920s.

In 1925, Tolkien returned to Oxford after receiving the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon. The wording of the question matters: Tolkien’s university subject was not simply modern creative writing. His academic career was grounded in the languages and literature of earlier periods.