While at Smith, Donna Robinson Divine taught a variety of courses on Middle East politics. Fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and Turkish, she has held visiting appointments at Yale, Harvard and the Hebrew University, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation and several Fulbright grants.

Author of many scholarly articles on a variety of topics in Middle East history and politics, Divine has also written Women Living Change (Women in the Political Economy), essays from the Smith College Research Project on Women and Social Change; Politics and Society in Ottoman Palestine: The Arab Struggle for Survival and Power; and Postcolonial Theory and The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Her latest book is Exiled in the Homeland: Zionism and the Return to Mandate Palestine. Co-editor with S. Ilan Troen of a special issue of Israel Studies, she has written, most recently, on how Zionism is still a significant element in Israeli politics.

Named the Katharine Asher Engel lecturer at Smith College for the 2012–13 academic year in recognition of her scholarly achievements, she was also designated as Smith's Honored Professor for the excellence of her teaching. She is currently serving as vice president of the Association for Israel Studies and as an adjunct professor at Israel's University of Haifa.