Blurb:

Code switching is a term used to describe switching between language systems and, more specifically, between informal and formal language. Although I see code switching as something practiced daily and therefore quite mundane—although with stakes always high and in various degrees—I will try in my presentation to see what sort of utility “code switching” has as an analytical term. For this I will use my research on “mystery cults” in the Greco-Roman world as an analogy to think through the manner in which research on code switching plays a role in creating zones of activity and identity by manipulating notions of privacy and public, notions of
self and other.