[2] James McDougall studied French, German, and Arabic at the University of St Andrews, then modern Middle Eastern history and politics at St Antony's College, Oxford.
He was a junior research fellow at the Middle East Centre of St Antony's College, Oxford (2002–2004), then assistant professor of history at Princeton University (2004–2007) and lecturer in the history of Africa at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (2007–2009), before taking up a tutorial fellowship in modern history at Trinity College, Oxford, in 2009.
McDougall's research focuses on the history of North Africa and the French colonial empire.
[3] In 2015, he supported an academic boycott of Israeli higher education institutions.
[5][6] In 2018, McDougall was involved in academic disagreement in Oxford with Nigel Biggar's controversial "Ethics and Empire" project.