Which university appointed C. S. Lewis to its English faculty in 1954?

Cambridge University appointed C. S. Lewis to its English faculty in 1954. He became the first holder of the newly established chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Before moving to Cambridge, Lewis had spent much of his academic career at Oxford. He was a fellow and tutor at Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 until 1954. His Oxford work established him as a major scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature.

The Cambridge appointment did not end his relationship with Oxford. Lewis continued to live and work in the Oxford area, commuting to Cambridge for his university duties. His Cambridge years were therefore an important second phase of his academic career rather than a complete relocation.

The institutions are easy to confuse because both universities were central to Lewis’s professional life. Oxford came first; Cambridge appointed him to its English chair in 1954.