Dr. Le Quoc Loi is an interdisciplinary researcher of education, international and regional politics, and the Indochina Wars in the 20th century. With the experiences and academic training focused on the international politics, history, education, and culture of the Greater Mekong Subregion, Loi has been pursuing his research to investigate the intersectionality of social, political, military, and educational factors underlying the sophisticated dynamics of the Indochina Wars since 1950s. His work uses oral histories and artifacts to explore the traumatic experiences of the Southern Vietnamese survivors and their perspectives toward to the causes of the Vietnam War, and the process of their identity transformation and their mental healing process in America. With his depth-knowledge of the Indochina region and South Vietnam’s culture, vernacular, and geography, Loi assists the Unseen Legacies of Vietnam War project to compile and verify the war dead information, and to locate the burial sites of the fallen fighters of the North Vietnamese Army and National Liberation Front on the battlefields in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

Prior to coming the Ash Center, Loi served as a specialist of International Affairs at An Giang University, South Vietnam, leading and supervising international research projects, cooperation activities, and exchange programs between An Giang University and its partners in Cambodia, Laos, Japan, South Korea, France, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the United States. Loi earned his M.A. in International Development Studies in Thailand, and Ph.D. in bilingual education, focusing on Vietnamese refugees and their diasporic history in the U.S.