Pearlman graduated from
Brown University magna cum laude in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in history. During her junior year at Brown, Pearlman studied abroad in Morocco, where she began studying Arabic. In 1996 and 1997, Pearlman completed a
Fulbright Fellowship in
Madrid, where she researched
North African migrant communities. Pearlman received a Master of Arts in government from
Georgetown University before pursuing doctoral studies at
Harvard University. She completed her Ph.D. in government from Harvard in 2007. She has taught at Northwestern University since 2008, where she held the Crown Junior Chairship in Middle East Studies (2009-15) and Crown Professorship of Middle East Studies (2022-24). Pearlman has served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal
Perspectives on Politics since June 2023. == Personal life ==