James Clifford may refer to:
- James Clifford (musician) (1622–1698), English divine and musician
- James Clifford (artist) (1936–1987), Australian Modernist painter
- James Clifford (historian) (born 1945), historian and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz
- James Clifford (MP), member of parliament for Gloucestershire
- James Clifford (designer), American fashion designer
James Clifford (1622–1698), was an English divine and musician.
James Clifford was an Australian painter who borrowed styles from other artists in the manner of psychedelic rock music artists who came after the major pop artists and were forerunners of the postmodern appropriation movement of the 1980s.
James Clifford is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work combines perspectives from history, literature, and anthropology. He grew up in New York City and was for thirty three years Professor in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz until his retirement in 2011. Clifford and Hayden White were the first faculty directly appointed to the graduate-only department at UC-Santa Cruz. The History of Consciousness department continues to be an intellectual center for innovative critical scholarship in the U.S. and abroad, largely due to a group of prominent faculty including Donna Haraway, Teresa de Lauretis, Victor Burgin, Angela Davis and Barbara Epstein, who were hired in the 1980s. Clifford served as department Chair from 2004-2007 and was the founding director of UCSC's Center for Cultural Studies. He has been a visiting professor in France, England and Germany and was elected to the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences in 2011.
