Caitlin Flanagan earned a BA from Beloit College in Women's and Gender Studies with a focus on medical ethics in the Middle East. She earned a State Department-sponsored scholarship from the Institute of International Education to study women's organizations in Egypt at the American University in Cairo. After traveling through the Middle East and taking more time to study Arabic, she went on to earn an MA in Middle East Studies at the University of Chicago. Her doctoral research focus is on transnational social networks and skilled female migration.