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Bruce Nordstrom-Loeb holds degrees in sociology from the University of Michigan (B.A.), Harvard University (M.A.), and the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D.). He has taught at St. Olaf since 1982.
Bruce teaches a variety of courses in the department, some of which are also a part of St. Olaf interdisciplinary majors such as Women's Studies, Hispanic Studies, and American Racial and Multicultural Studies. He was also very active in St. Olaf's Paracollege (an alternative college within St. Olaf) until that program ended in the spring of 2001. He also taught in the American Conversation program in 2001 and 2002.
Bruce and his wife Barbara have been involved in several of the college's semester study abroad programs in recent years. Most recently, they led Term in the Middle East, fall semester of 2009. Highlights included the celebration of Ramadan in Istanbul, a month-long home-stay with Moroccan families in Fez, and climbing Mt. Sinai in Egypt. They also spent time in Israel and Palestine after the program ended, as did many of the students, visiting Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
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Bruce's travel-learning in the Middle East is his second such long-term experience in recent years. In 1997-1998, he was a Fulbright Scholar (with the U.S. Fulbright Program) and lived in Lithuania with Barbara while teaching at the Women's Studies Center at Vilnuis University in the capital city. It was a fascinating experience to be a part of a society that is still trying to redefine and remake itself after almost half a century of Soviet rule.
During interim of 2004 Bruce taught a course on contemporary Mexico to the St. Olaf Band as part of its expanded annual band tour. He studied in Mexico for two weeks in June 2003 to help get ready for this new course. Among other locations, he spent two days in an indigenous farming village where people still speak the old Aztec language, Nahautl. Here are the photos from the Mexico interim:
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Bruce and Barbara led St. Olaf's Term in Asia program in the fall of 2004. The group lived and learned from local people in Japan (especially Tokyo and Kyoto, but also Hiroshima and other sites), China (primarily the mega-cities of Beijing and Shanghai, but also in mountainous Yunan Province in the far southwest of China), Thailand (primarily Chiang Mai, where students lived with host families while learning Thai for over two months), and Vietnam (primarily in Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon in the south, and Hanoi in the north). Some photos from their time in Asia are below:
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Bruce admits (with mixed feelings!) that he is likely as well known for his homemade oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies as for his classes. He gets more requests for this cookie recipe than he does for additional homework assignments!
Read Bruce's chapel talks, "My Jewish Marriage," "An Extravagant Welcome," "Learning from Native Americans," and "St. Francis and the Sultan."
Bruce teaches the following courses
261 Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective
264 Race and Class in America
Office Hours
Contact Bruce: nordstrb@stolaf.edu
