 Bruzelius completed her undergraduate work at Wellesley College in 1971 and received an M.A.in Art, an M.Phil, and a Ph.D, all from Yale University in 1973, 1974, and 1977, respectively.Fro 1977 to 1979, Bruzelius was an assistant professor at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from 1979 to 1980 she was a researcher at the National Endowment for the Humanities.