Her research areas encompass the sociology of African American culture and African American women's representations in society. She has published articles in Afro-Americans in New York Life and History: An Interdisciplinary Journal and The Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering. A lifetime member of the Association of Black Women Historians, she contributed an article to the organization's 2008 text, Emerging Voices and Paradigms. She also guest-edited an Africana Mothering-themed edition of The Journal of Pan African Studies. Butler incorporates local service learning experiences into her upper-level courses and teaches courses on comparative American family structures, the intersections of race, class, and gender, and African American feminist practice.