Dr. Piotr Szczepan Kisiel
Research Associate | Contemporary History and Archive

Piotr Kisiel joined the IRS in January 2021. He conducts the project “Mapping and Transforming. Interdisciplinary Approaches to City Maps as a Visual Medium of Urban Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, 1939-1949” in the Research Area Contemporary History and Archive. He studied history at the Jagiellonian University (2007–2011) and at the University of Dundee (2009–2011) as well as law at the Jagiellonian University (2004–2009). In January 2016 he defended his PhD thesis entitled “The politics of space: symbols of hegemonic and non-dominant ethnic groups in the urban landscape of Prussia and Austria-Hungary (1867-1914)” at the European University Institute in Florence. His PhD was published in 2018 by the Herder Institute in Marburg. 2018–2020 he worked at the University of Konstanz on a project on industrial heritage in Germany and Poland.

Projects

Ongoing Third-party Funded Projects

Cities affected by the Second World War had to redefine their urban self-image and undertake a revision of their building stock in the face of the impending or real bombing catastrophe. Maps and mapping played a special role in this. The research network "Mapping and Transforming. Interdisciplinary Access to City Maps as a Visual Medium of Urban Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, 1939-1949" explores functions of city maps in transformation processes for selected cities in Central and Eastern Europe in interdisciplinary cooperation, from the perspective of the humanities and engineering sciences, social geography as well as computer science. more info

Selected Publications by Year

2024
Kisiel, P. (2024). Recovering the Past for the Future: Racibórz after World War II. Urban History. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926823000779
Kisiel, P. (2024). Meaning beyond Accuracy: War Damage Map of Cottbus. Journal of Urban History. https://doi.org/10.1177/00961442231201352
2022
Kisiel, P. (2022). Picturing an Industrial City: Green and Modern? Postcards from Chemnitz and Lodz (1880s–1980s). Journal of Urban History, 49(2), 288-309. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926821000018
Kisiel, P. (2022). Invisible Cities: Postcard Writing in Industrial Cities (1956–1988). Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 20(3), 406-418. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766825.2020.1849245
Kisiel, P. (2022). When We Say Post-Industrial – We Mean Ruins. Heritage & Society, 14 (2021)(1), 20-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159032X.2021.2022070
2021
Kisiel, P. S. (2021). Buchbesprechung: „Das neue Ghetto“? Raum, Wissen und jüdische Identität im langen 19. Jahrhundert von Jürgen Heyde. Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 70(2), 281-283. https://doi.org/10.25627/202170210962
Kisiel, P. S. (2021). European Industrial Heritage: Between Technical Monuments and Post-Industrial Landscapes. In D. Mérai, Z. Sidó, H. Szemző, & V. Kulikov (Eds.), From Burden to Resource: Uses of Industrial Heritage in East-Central Europe (pp. 40-47). Archaeolingua. http://www.archaeolingua.hu/book/burden-resource-uses-industrial-heritage-east-central-europe
2020
Kisiel, P. S. (2020). Unwanted Inheritance? Industrial Past as the EU Heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 652-666. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2019.1678053
Kisiel, P. S. (2020). Buchbesprechung: Kozinska-Witt, Hanna: Politycy czy klakierzy? Zydzi w krakowskiej radzie miejskiej w XIX wieku. Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 69(4), 541-543. https://www.zfo-online.de/portal/index.php/zfo/article/view/10855/10816
2019
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). European Manchesters: Finding common ground in the industrial past. Paper presented at Narratives of Europe’s Shared Past: Between Singularity of the Holocaust and Totalitarian Paradigm, Brussels, Belgium.
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). Beyond the Textile Mills: Postcards from Chemnitz and Lodz (1880s-1980s). Paper presented at IX AISU Congress - The Global City, Bologna, Italy.
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). Neither Industrial nor Socialist: Rethinking the past of the former industrial cities in Eastern Europe. Paper presented at 2nd urbanHIST Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). Likeable Pasts: Historical Urban Views on Facebook. Europe Now. https://www.europenowjournal.org/2019/09/09/likeable-pasts-historical-urban-views-on-facebook/
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). Likeable Pasts: Historical Urban Views on Facebook. Paper presented at Politics of E-Heritage: Production and Regulation of Digital Memory in Eastern Europe and Russia, Marburg, Germany.
2018
Kisiel, P. S. (2018). Memory Landscape and a Redefinition of the Urban Narration: Lodz after 1989. Paper presented at (Past)Visions of the Future, Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
Kisiel, P. S. (2018). Politics of Space in Prussian and Austrian-Hungarian Cities. (Studien zur Ostmitteleuropaforschung). Herder-Institut.
2017
Kisiel, P. S. (2017). The difficult relationship between nationalism and built heritage: the case of late nineteenth-century Krakow. Nationalities Papers, 45(3), 410-424. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2016.1262339
2015
Kisiel, P. S. (2015, Mar 28). Rezension zu: Blazej Brzostek "Paryze innej Europy". https://www.pol-int.org/en/node/2192#r7054

Selected Publications by Type

Monograph
Kisiel, P. S. (2018). Politics of Space in Prussian and Austrian-Hungarian Cities. (Studien zur Ostmitteleuropaforschung). Herder-Institut.
Journal Article
Kisiel, P. (2024). Recovering the Past for the Future: Racibórz after World War II. Urban History. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926823000779
Kisiel, P. (2024). Meaning beyond Accuracy: War Damage Map of Cottbus. Journal of Urban History. https://doi.org/10.1177/00961442231201352
Kisiel, P. (2022). Picturing an Industrial City: Green and Modern? Postcards from Chemnitz and Lodz (1880s–1980s). Journal of Urban History, 49(2), 288-309. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926821000018
Kisiel, P. (2022). Invisible Cities: Postcard Writing in Industrial Cities (1956–1988). Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 20(3), 406-418. https://doi.org/10.1080/14766825.2020.1849245
Kisiel, P. (2022). When We Say Post-Industrial – We Mean Ruins. Heritage & Society, 14 (2021)(1), 20-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159032X.2021.2022070
Kisiel, P. S. (2020). Unwanted Inheritance? Industrial Past as the EU Heritage. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 652-666. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2019.1678053
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). Likeable Pasts: Historical Urban Views on Facebook. Europe Now. https://www.europenowjournal.org/2019/09/09/likeable-pasts-historical-urban-views-on-facebook/
Kisiel, P. S. (2017). The difficult relationship between nationalism and built heritage: the case of late nineteenth-century Krakow. Nationalities Papers, 45(3), 410-424. https://doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2016.1262339
Conference Paper
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). European Manchesters: Finding common ground in the industrial past. Paper presented at Narratives of Europe’s Shared Past: Between Singularity of the Holocaust and Totalitarian Paradigm, Brussels, Belgium.
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). Beyond the Textile Mills: Postcards from Chemnitz and Lodz (1880s-1980s). Paper presented at IX AISU Congress - The Global City, Bologna, Italy.
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). Neither Industrial nor Socialist: Rethinking the past of the former industrial cities in Eastern Europe. Paper presented at 2nd urbanHIST Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.
Kisiel, P. S. (2019). Likeable Pasts: Historical Urban Views on Facebook. Paper presented at Politics of E-Heritage: Production and Regulation of Digital Memory in Eastern Europe and Russia, Marburg, Germany.
Kisiel, P. S. (2018). Memory Landscape and a Redefinition of the Urban Narration: Lodz after 1989. Paper presented at (Past)Visions of the Future, Nova Gorica, Slovenia.
Contribution to Forum or Blog
Kisiel, P. S. (2015, Mar 28). Rezension zu: Blazej Brzostek "Paryze innej Europy". https://www.pol-int.org/en/node/2192#r7054
Other Contribution to Book
Kisiel, P. S. (2021). European Industrial Heritage: Between Technical Monuments and Post-Industrial Landscapes. In D. Mérai, Z. Sidó, H. Szemző, & V. Kulikov (Eds.), From Burden to Resource: Uses of Industrial Heritage in East-Central Europe (pp. 40-47). Archaeolingua. http://www.archaeolingua.hu/book/burden-resource-uses-industrial-heritage-east-central-europe
Review in Journal
Kisiel, P. S. (2021). Buchbesprechung: „Das neue Ghetto“? Raum, Wissen und jüdische Identität im langen 19. Jahrhundert von Jürgen Heyde. Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 70(2), 281-283. https://doi.org/10.25627/202170210962
Kisiel, P. S. (2020). Buchbesprechung: Kozinska-Witt, Hanna: Politycy czy klakierzy? Zydzi w krakowskiej radzie miejskiej w XIX wieku. Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 69(4), 541-543. https://www.zfo-online.de/portal/index.php/zfo/article/view/10855/10816

Talks

2024
Form follows function? East German and Polish towns in comparative perspective (1945-1950s)

City Transitions: Society and the Spatial and Temporal Dimensions of Change

September/13/2024
Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany

The Green Veil of Stalinism: Parks and Greeneries in Poland and East Germany (1949-56)

EAUH 2024 Cities at the Boundaries

September/04/2024
University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

2023
Horizon of Expectations: Conceptualizing the Post-War Cottbus (1945-1950)

Europe’s Past, Present, and Future - Utopias and Dystopias

June/28/2023
University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland

Recovering the Past for the Future: Racibórz after the Second World War

March/31/2023