As an undergraduate student, she studied psychology, philosophy, and Ancient Greek, and eventually became interested in Gnosticism and Mandaeism.
In 1975, she began her doctoral studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School and received a Ph.D. in 1978.
Buckley has conducted fieldwork twice in Iran, in 1973 and 1996, as well as among Mandaean diaspora communities around the world.
She has regularly collaborated with Mandaic scholars such as Kurt Rudolph and Rudolf Macúch.
In 1995, the Executive Office for Immigration Review of the U.S. Department of Justice certified Buckley as an expert witness on the Mandaeans.