James is a lecturer in linguistics at Charles Darwin University, an honorary lecturer at the Australian National University and a member of the Top End Language Lab.

His research and teaching interests are focused around areas of morphosyntax, semantics and pragmatics and their interfaces; semantic and structural typology; language documentation and description methods; and language revitalisation and maintenance practices.

His research is collaborative and community-guided, having lived and worked in Mid-West Western Australia and in east Arnhem Land for over a decade. He works in collaboration with a number of First Nations language communities, particularly with the Badimia/Badimaya community in Mid-West WA, and with Warnumamalya communities on the Groote Eylandt archipelago in east Arnhem Land .

Current research interests and projects include:

• the semantics of tense, aspect, modality and event structure in Top End Australian languages (particularly Anindilyakwa)
• methods for monolingual encyclopedic and lexicographic descriptions (incl. word storytelling, riddle-making and language games) (with the Groote Eylandt Language Centre)
• Badimia/Badimaya language revitalisation, including the develoment of a community-led language learning/teaching online portal (with Kiara Rahman, Gary Passmore, Bundiyarra - Irra Wangga Language Centre and the Badimia Reference and Working Groups)
• expressing mathematical concepts in First Nations languages for teaching and learning in school contexts, particularly considering topics of geometric shape and spatial expression (with Cris Edmonds-Wathen and Groote Eylandt Bickerton Island Primary College Aboriginal Corporation (GEBIPCAC))

Visit James' personal website for more about current projects, downloadable papers and other information.