Gade was born in Berkeley, California and graduated from [[Berkeley High School (California)]]. She completed her B. A. in [[mathematics]] at [[Swarthmore College]], in [[Swarthmore, Pennsylvania|Swarthmore]], [[Pennsylvania]]. She holds a master’smaster's from the [[University of Chicago]] and received her Ph.D. with distinction in the history of religions from the [[University of Chicago Divinity School]], specializing in [[Islam]]. She has held teaching positions at different institutions in the [[United States]] and abroad including [[Cornell University]] (Near Eastern Studies), [[Princeton University]] (Music/Religion), [[Oberlin College]] (Religion), [[Victoria University of Wellington]], [[New Zealand]] (Religious Studies), and in Languages and Cultures of Asia at [[University of Wisconsin–Madison|University of Wisconsin-Madison]]. Since the 1900s, much of her research has been conducted in [[Indonesia]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Anna M. Gade|url=https://sites.google.com/a/wisc.edu/amgade/home|access-date=2020-11-07|website=sites.google.com}}</ref>
