Visiting Assistant Professor Matthew Francis Rarey presented his talk “Insignificant Things: Assemblage, Occlusion, and the Power of Pouches in the Black Atlantic” as part of the UWM Department of Africology Seminar Series. The presentation was derived from Prof. Rarey’s current book project, which investigates the cross-cultural forms and histories of a series of pouches used to protect from violence and malevolent spirits across Atlantic Africa, Brazil, and Portugal between the 17th and 19th centuries. The presentation was also an opportunity to increase collaborations between the Department of Africology and the Department of Art History, as reflected by the members of both departments that were in attendance.