Alena Nosel is an undergraduate student at American University set to graduate in May 2026. She is majoring in Asia, Pacific, and Diaspora Studies and minoring in Korean. Alena is happy to return as an HRNK team member after having previously completing an internship during the summer of 2024. Her interest in North Korean human rights issues stems from her identity as a third-generation Cuban American, recognizing the significant overlap between their respective operations of authoritarian regimes. She looks forward to helping increase worldwide consciousness of North Korean human rights violations and learning the ins and outs of non-governmental organizations.

Alena studied abroad at Yonsei University during the fall 2024 semester where she advanced her knowledge of North Korea through classes such as “Politics and Society of North Korea” and “International Conflict and Cooperation.”

Her research primarily focuses on East Asian history and culture, theory, and global security. Alena previously participated in the 33rd Annual Robyn Rafferty Mathias Research Conference in 2023, presenting in the topic, “Colonial Cartography and Orientalism in Dung Kai-Cheung’s Atlas: The Archeology of an Imaginary City.” In November 2025, she wrote and presented an original research paper titled “Once a Rogue, always a Rogue: How the US Failed to Denuclearize North Korea by Othering” at the annual Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association regional conference in Philadelphia. In December 2025, she completed an internship with the Bipartisan Leadership Project, primarily working on its Nuclear Arms Risk Reduction Project, which aims to generate civic engagement on the escalating threat of nuclear catastrophe.

After graduation, Alena hopes to pursue a master’s degree in international relations to later serve as a foreign service officer.