Her research and teaching interests include grassroots development and collective organization, environmental and maritime anthropology, rural development, political ecology, and social vulnerability to climate and environmental change. Vásquez-León has conducted research and outreach for over two decades with smallholder agricultural and fishing communities throughout Latin America and the US Southwest on issues related to collective organization, common property resources, and rural development. Most of her work has taken place in Northwest Mexico, the US-Mexico Border region, Brazil, and Paraguay. She has also worked with migrant farm workers and Native American tribes in Southern Arizona and with Colombian refugees in the Colombia-Ecuador border.