John C. Stanko received a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Texas Tech University and a master's in Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies from the University of Kansas. Following a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program in Irkutsk, Russia, John spent two years teaching English in Moscow prior to arriving at IU. John's primary field of study is international relations, with a focus on the foreign policies of authoritarian states in Eurasia and how these regimes use soft power, particularly higher education diplomacy, to achieve their respective international aims.
After serving as a Russian Studies Workshop Fellow in 2020-21, John will be pursuing Kazakh language studies through a Foreign Languages and Area Studies award this year
John Stanko
Graduate Student
The College of Arts