James is a lecturer in linguistics at Charles Darwin University and an honorary lecturer at the Australian National University.

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

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
• methods for monolingual encyclopedic and lexicographic descriptions (incl. word storytelling, riddle-making and language games) (with the Groote Eylandt Language Centre) (CoEDL GFS Grant, 2021-22)
• 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) (FLA PLSP Grant 'Badimia Online Portal Learning Resource', 2021-2023)
• 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)) (CSFP Grant 'Identifying mathematical expression for teaching and learning mathematics in diverse Australian Indigenous languages' 2021-)

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