Dr Wagner graduated in 2001 with a first class Magistra Artium degree in Semitic Philology, Islamic Studies and Indo-European Studies from the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena/Germany. During her studies, she spent a year as a Visiting Student at the Victoria University of Manchester, and was involved in the editing and publication of the JBVO and EFAH series.
After completing her Master's degree, she worked on a joint project with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (funded by the German-Israeli Foundation) on Yiddish syntax before completing a PhD in 2007 at the University of Cambridge about the language of mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic letters under the supervision of Prof Geoffrey Khan. After six years as a Research Associate at the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, she is now a Senior Research Fellow at the Woolf Institute while continuing her work in the Genizah Research Unit on a part-time basis.