Higgins is the daughter of the Fluxus artists, Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles. She received her B.A. in 1988 from Oberlin College, her M.A. from the University of Chicago in 1990, and graduated with her Ph.D. in 1994 from the University of Chicago. Higgins is married to Joe Reinstein, Head of Surrogates for the Obama presidential campaign, and has two children: Zoë and Nathalie. Her twin sister, Jessica Higgins, is a New York and Massachusetts-based intermedia artist.