Van Le is a Master of Philosophy candidate in Culture, History and Languages at the Australian National University, with a focus on Southeast Asian Studies. She graduated from the Australian National University with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Asian Studies, where she developed a strong interest in Vietnamese history within the broader context of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and transregional discourses.

Van's current project examines the status of Vietnamese women in the nineteenth century through the lens of folk literature. By treating oral tradition as a historical source, the project investigates how cultural practices preserved in performance can offer insight into gender relations that are not fully reflected in formal legal and literary texts of premodern Vietnam.