Klein receives Festschrift commemorating scholarly career

Professor of linguistics, Classics, and Germanic and Slavic languages Jared Klein has been honored with the publication of a festschrift celebrating his career and contributions to the discipline of Indo-European linguistics. The book-length volume of original, scholarly articles, Tavet Tat Satyam, was published by Beech Stave Press on the occasion of Klein’s seventieth birthday.

The presentation of a festschrift is a European tradition honoring a respected academic during their lifetime as an acknowledgement of their broad influence on their field or discipline. It consists of contributions by friends, colleagues, and (former) students.

The special volume was edited by three of Klein’s former students, all UGA graduates: Andrew Byrd, Jessica DeLisis and Mark Wenthe. Tavet tat satyam is Sanskrit, taken from the first hymn of the Rigveda, the foundational text of ancient classical India, and translates as “Of you alone is that true.”

“It is a tremendous honor that feels like a validation of my career,” Klein said. “That the book was edited by three of my former students, each of whom I taught at different degree levels (respectively, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.) is what I’m most proud of.”

Klein was surprised with the festschrift during the East Coast Indo-European Conference (ECIEC) held at UGA in June.

Klein has spent 44 years in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of Classics and Program in Linguistics, teaching Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Classical Armenian, Gothic and historical linguistics. The author of four books and editor of four others, Klein has published close to 140 articles and book reviews on Vedic Sanskrit, Classical Armenian, Gothic, and Greek, among other languages.

The festschrift in Klein’s honor contains 33 by 34 scholars from 10 countries and three continents, all published for the first time in this volume, an effort organized by the editors without Klein’s knowledge or participation.

“I had no way of even conceptualizing that, over the past 3-4 years, a certain amount of work was being done on three continents to bring this this about,” Klein said. “In our field, there is literally nothing else that would have meant as much to me.”