Kisler, Rudy

I am a research fellow in the Volkswagen Momentum Program “From Pre-Modern to Modern Perspectives in Judaic Studies” at the Munich Research Centre for Jewish-Arabic Cultures.

My project examines how marginalized groups in Israel interpret and narrate their cultural heritage beyond official Zionist heritage discourses. Focusing on Baram National Park in the Upper Galilee, it explores how multiple, contested histories—Jewish, Mizrahi, Hasidic, and Palestinian—coexist yet remain unevenly represented in the public landscape. Using a rights-based, qualitative case study approach, the research centers the voices of marginalized communities through interviews, observation, and participatory photovoice methods. Building on prior findings about exclusionary heritage policies, the project shifts attention from state narratives to lived heritage practices. Its goal is to develop more inclusive models of heritage representation, education, and policy applicable in Israel/Palestine and other contested heritage contexts.

Areas of Interest

cultural heritage, Israel’s heritage policy, history and heritage education, photovoice research

Historical Periods of Interest

20th – 21st centuries

Positions

Education

Awards and distinctions

Publication

Peer-reviewed

Kisler, R. (2024). Cultural heritage education and militarization: a case-study of the Castel

National Heritage Site in Israel. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1–19.

Kisler, R. (2024). Silenced Heritage: Israel’s Heritage Plan Vis-à-Vis Non-Jewish History.

Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 30(2), 252–270.

Kisler, R. (2023). The political ideology underlying israel’s national cultural heritage policy.

International Journal of Cultural Policy, 1-14.

Kisler, R. (2022). The Jewish people in their homeland: the discursive mechanisms of

Israel’s cultural heritage policy. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 28(10), 1180–1195.

Kisler, R. (2020). A three-thousand-year-old soldier: history and the Hebrew bible in Jewish-

Israeli public education. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 43(4), 497–511.

Kisler, R. (2017). Based on a true story: History and fiction in Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of

the Plague Year. Muza (1) 7-22. [Hebrew].

Work in progress

Kisler, R. & Cohen, A. (under review). Cultural Heritage Education in Conflict and Post-

Conflict contexts: A Scoping Review. Comparative Educational Review.

Book reviews

Kisler, R. (2020). Review of the book Critical Pedagogy and Marx, Vygotsky and Freire by

Villacañas de Castro, L.S. Canadian Journal of Action Research. 20(3), 2020, pp. 107-109.

Monographs

Kisler, R. Fiction as History: Fictional and Historical Overlaps in Daniel Defoe’s Fictional

Writing, Master’s Thesis, 2016, History Department, Tel-Aviv University, TA, Israel.

Journalistic writing (selected)

1/4Kisler, R. (2024, December 16) ‘Annexation under the cover of cultural heritage’, Ynet [Hebrew].

Kisler, R. (2022, September 11) ‘Tantura: New documentary sparks debate about Israel and

the Palestinian Nakba’, The Conversation.

Kisler, R. (2020, April 25) ‘Back to the days of London’s Great Plague in light of COVID-19’,

Haokets [Hebrew].

Kisler, R. (2019, November 07) ‘Poland and the Holocaust: two sides to the story’, CJN, p. 7.

Kisler, R. (2019, August 29) ‘Yuval Noah-Harari, History and Rhetorics’. Haokets. [Hebrew].

Kisler, R. (2019,January 25) ’Trudeau Apologised, But Did We Get the Message’, CJN.

Photo copyright: LMU / Manu Theobald