Thomas McEvilley is Distinguished Lecturer in Art History at Rice University, where he has been on the faculty since 1969. The author holds a Ph.D. in classical philology.

McEvilley is the author of numerous books, including Triumph of Anti-Art: Conceptual and Performance Art in the Formation of Post-Modernism (Mcpherson & Co., 2005), The Shape of Ancient Thought: Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies (Allworth, 2002), and The Exile's Return : Toward a Redefinition of Painting for the Post-modern Era (Cambridge, 1994). He was the recipient of a Fulbright Grant in 1993 and has been awarded an NEA critic’s grant and the Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism by the College Art Association. He lives in New York City.