James is a Lecturer in Sociolinguistics in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. His research interests are in topics which sit at the intersection of sociophonetics and forensic linguistics. James has primarily conducted research on perceptual judgments of different speakers and the application of these judgments in forensic contexts.

 

His published work includes the analysis of perceptions of police interviewees from audio recordings and written transcripts, exploration of the relative contributions of voices and faces in person perception, assessments of whether non-linguists can accurately assess different aspects of speakers voices, and how people infer traits such as threat and intent-to-harm from speakers’ voices.