James is the University’s Art and Design History Specialist, and an advocate for the importance of academic research and writing within practice-based art and design degree programmes. James studied BA (Joint Hons) History of Art and French at the University of Sussex, and M.Sc. ARCH History of Modern Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. He also holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Post-Compulsory Education and Training from the University of Greenwich, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Upon completion of his masters, James lectured at the University of Westminster and South Essex College, where he was course leader for the BA (Hons) Graphic Design and BA (Hons) Interior Design degrees, before spending two years in Australia where he taught Art History at Newcastle Art School, as well as teaching on the practical arts programme for the New South Wales Prison Service.

James has taught at Leeds Arts University for the past sixteen years, and has worked on the majority of undergraduate degree programmes in this time. He currently teaches on BA (Hons) Fine Art, BA (Hons) Textile Design, BA (Hons) Fashion Design, and BA (Hons) Marketing Communications.

His ongoing research and practice considers photography within the same artistic and literary tradition as northern European Romanticism, extending into abstract expressionism, and explores photography’s capacity to convey the same values of spirituality, luminosity and the sublime that are inherent to these movements.