Professor of History, a historian of modern East Central Europe. In his work focuses on the question of belonging, interethnic relations, nationalism, and minorities. Author of the book "The Remnants of the Habsburg Monarchy: Shaping Modern Austria and Hungary, 1918-1922". His last book, "Tangible Belonging: Negotiating Germanness in Twentieth-Century Hungary", won the ASEEES Barbara Jelavich Book Prize as well as the Hungarian Studies Book Prize. In addition, he has also been involved with documentary filmmaking. His feature-length film, "About a Village", has been screened at film festivals in the United States, Canada, Germany, Hungary, and Japan. Most recently he has published three photo essays, one concerning teaching with photographs, one about the meaning of "people and places" in Ukraine today, and one concerning nostalgia. He also co-authored two European anthologies with Longman Publishers (Pearson).

Currently, is working on a project concerning the Jewish communities of Transcarpathia with the tentative title: "Lili Jacob, Bilky, and the Auschwitz Album: A Triple Biography". It is a biography of a person, place, and an object. In all his work John C. Swanson tries to think about how everyday people, mainly non-urban dwellers, throughout the 20th century understood (and understand) who they were, often in relation with their neighbors and their immediate environment.