James moved to Coventry University in 2018 from King’s College London, where he had lectured in Politics and International Relations since 2015. He holds a PhD in Political Science from UCL, where he also served as Director of MSc Democracy and Comparative Politics from 2013-15.

His research has focussed on the challenges of democratization in Central and Eastern Europe with a particular emphasis on the clash of liberal and progressive norms on the one hand and ethnic nationalist and pro-authoritarian ideas on the other. His recent work has been published in the Journal of Common Market Studies, Journal of Democracy, East European Politics and Nationalities Papers and he is the author of one monograph – Cultures of Democracy in Serbia and Bulgaria: How Ideas Shape Publics (2014; paperback 2016), which was awarded the BASEES George Blazyca Prize. Consistent with his analytical focus on the spread of ideas, he uses methodologies such as sociological surveys, ethnography and discursive institutionalism. He has also written numerous journalistic articles for Foreign Policy magazine, Open Democracy, Balkan Insight and others.