After completing an MPhil and PhD in the History of Art, as well as stints at Harvard and Yale, James took up a Fellowship in Cambridge in 2011. He specialises in modern art, British art, and the cultural history of colour. He has published widely on modern art, British art and the cultural history of colour. His first book, British Art and the First World War, 1919-24, was published to critical acclaim by Cambridge University Press in 2015.

He is currently Director of Studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Director of Education at the Jeffrey Rubinoff Sculpture Park in Canada, and President of the Friends of the Stanley Spencer Gallery.