What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s first academic post at the University of Leeds?

J.R.R. Tolkien’s first academic post at the University of Leeds was Reader in English Language.

Tolkien joined the University of Leeds in 1920 as a reader in English language. He later became Professor of English Language, and his work there included teaching subjects connected with historical linguistics, Old English, Middle English, and Germanic languages.

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, while also continuing the linguistic and myth-making work that shaped his invented languages and stories.

Tolkien left Leeds in 1925 to become Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. That later Oxford title is often remembered more readily, but it was not his first university post.