John T. Kirby

John T. Kirby is a Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Miami's College of Arts and Sciences. His scholarly work bridges classical antiquity with interdisciplinary studies, focusing on rhetoric, literary theory, and cross-cultural philosophical parallels.

Research Interests:
• Classical and Hellenistic rhetorical theory
• Cognitive approaches to ancient texts
• Comparative mythology (Greek/Mesopotamian)
• Metaphor in Aristotle's Poetics
• Ecocritical interpretations of classical philosophy

His publications span critical reviews of foundational texts and original research on Aristotelian poetics, classical metaphors, and pedagogical approaches to ancient rhetoric. Recent work includes analyses of Mencius and Aristotle's ecological perspectives (2016) and a 2018 reassessment of the Norton Critical Edition of the Poetics.

Selected Articles:
• "The Deep Ecology of Rhetoric in Mencius and Aristotle" (2016)
• "Updating Aristotle: A New Norton Critical Edition of the Poetics" (2018)
• "Aristotle on metaphor" (1997)