John Stanko

Dr. John C. Stanko is a first-generation graduate originally from southern New Jersey. He holds an associate's degree in history and political science, a bachelor's in political science from Texas Tech University, a master's in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Kansas, and recently completed his doctorate in political science here at IU Bloomington. John has lived in a variety of places, including spending two years in Moscow, Russia working as an English teacher. His interest in Eastern Europe led him to take a part-time job as a student assistant within Serials Acquisitions handling Slavic-language periodicals. From there, he accepted a position as a full-time Serials Procurement & Access Specialist at IU Libraries.

In this position, his responsibilities include helping manage the life cycle of subscriptions by assisting processing of annual renewal projects for IU Bloomington and five regional campus libraries. He also facilitates access to electronic journals via the e-resource management (ERM) system.

Outside of his work at IU Libraries, John is a scholar of the foreign policy strategies of small powers. In particular, he conducts foreign policy analysis of small power authoritarian regimes. Additional themes in his research include non-coercive influence, international sport, and the intersection of (higher) education and foreign policymaking. Geographically, he focuses primarily on Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Eurasia. He has published multiple peer-reviewed articles, most recently one in Political Communication entitled "Dynamic Legitimation Theory and Populist Authoritarian Leaders: The Rhetorical Framing of International Status for Domestic Legitimacy."

While completing his doctorate, John was the instructor of record for POLS-Y 363: Comparative Foreign Policy during the Summer 2025 semester at Indiana University. In addition to numerous academic honors, he was recognized as the November 2024 IU Libraries Student Employee of the Month while working as the Specialized Language Student Assistant for Slavic periodicals.