Alen is ethnographically investigating the dynamics between academics, low-wage factory workers, and corporate executives as global brand Levi Strauss & Co. leads the apparel industry by partnering with Harvard Chan’s Project SHINE to monitor worker well-being at four factories governed by Apparel International, INC, Levi’s primary supplier in Mexico.
Alen is a candidate for a Doctor of Science (’20) in Social & Behavioral Sciences, with a secondary field in Critical Media Practice through the Film Study Center at Harvard University. In the interdisciplinary style of the medical humanities, Alen ties public health together with medical anthropology, civic education, aesthetic philosophy and art practice to solve and better understand population health dilemmas. His current and previous research involves the use of multimodal approaches such as participatory action research, performance ethnography and psychometrics to investigate such concepts as diet, happiness, work and bureaucracy. He earned a BS-MS in Nutrition & Food Science at the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, where he was also trained in program development and evaluation.