Petrouchka Moïse

Dr. Petrouchka Moïse is Assistant Professor / Cultural & Community-based Digital Curator at Grinnell College Libraries. As an artist/scholar, she teaches classes on visual and material culture and curatorial studies, focusing on the Caribbean. In her role as Cultural and Community-Based Digital Curator, Dr. Moïse is responsible for developing interdisciplinary initiatives to enhance the learning experience of the academic and cultural community. Dr. Petrouchka Moïse began at Grinnell as a 2020-24 CLIR/Mellon post-doctoral fellow working with Dr. Fredo Rivera, Art History, as co-leads to the Haitian Arts Digital Crossroad (HADC) project. HADC is a joint initiative between the Grinnell College Library and the Waterloo Center for the Arts. The HADC aims to make the Haitian art collection of the Waterloo Center for the Arts, the largest publicly held collection of Haitian art in the Diaspora, as well as other public institutions with Haitian collections, digitally accessible through a hub that will serve as a network for online resources in Haitian visual arts and culture. 

Dr. Petrouchka Moïse leadership has been central to the project’s "Going Beyond Provenance" ™️methodology and design. Dr. Moise’s work has been instrumental in shaping HADC’s ethical framework, language-centered approach to metadata, and commitment to equity, accessibility, and decolonial digital practice. Her vision helped establish the project’s core principles, including critical cataloging, multilingual access through the development of a Kreyòl arts thesaurus, and the creation of the HADC Digital Lakou™️ as a collaborative space for research, pedagogy, and public engagement.

HADC has emerged not only as a research database but as an innovative scholarly environment that bridges library science, museum studies, cultural studies, Black studies, and art history. The platform supports new forms of digital analysis while remaining deeply rooted in community partnership and cultural responsibility. Her methodological leadership reflects the very best of Grinnell’s commitment to research excellence, public scholarship, and global engagement.

Dr. Moïse also focuses on the use of digital platforms and tools in the areas of archiving and public memory. Her #Wap-Kon-Haitian-Art platform bridges the reclaimed narrative of the contemporary Haitian artist’s diverse cultural production, artistic protest, religious heritage, and mythologies to create a compelling portrait of a historically significant and intensely complex identity in flux. By bringing to light contemporary Haitian artists currently showcasing their work across the Diaspora, Dr. Moïse looks to identify the Haitian signature that reshapes the artistic narrative from traumatic to triumphant.

Her post-doctoral work brings attention to the use of contemporary art in consecrated Vodou spaces. The #VodouReboot initiative looks to develop the praxis of the contemporary narrative of Haitian art in an organic process connecting directly to the source of Haitian and Kreyol inspiration. This research considers the complex role of Haitian art, from the museum and marketplace to places of worship and devotion. This reboot will build context through designing exhibition and ceremonial spaces for a network of new and emerging Vodou artists. This research will serve as the framework for a Vodou-based fellowship program for artists, scholars and practitioners to think of Vodou in the digital.  By developing the descriptive metadata required to describe the cultural works, such as religious significance, logistical placement, artistic provenance, etc., Haitian art will continue to serve as a historical and cultural presence..

To follow Dr. Moïse’s work visit http://www.vivrestudios.com.

Consulting Areas

African Diaspora Studies, Art History, Studio Art, French and Arabic, and the SAMESA concentration (Studies in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia)