Annual Business Humanities Conference
“Teaching Business Differently: the Role of the Humanities in Business Education”
Friday, October 17, 2025, 9 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Bethany Hall, (400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, New Jersey)
Business Humanities is an emerging, multi-disciplinary field wherein practitioners seek to better integrate teaching, learning, and research in the humanities and business. The idea is that the separation of the humanities and business is artificial and detrimental and, correlatively, that studying the humanities and business together is vital for understanding and solving complex issues in business and society, helping to cultivate ethical, innovative and effective leaders, and creating business practices and cultures that better protect and promote human dignity, contribute to human flourishing, and serve the common good. Universities have long taken for granted that the liberal arts prepare students well for successful business careers, but they have not explicitly taught students how to apply what they learn in humanities courses to actual business issues. This conference and the Business Humanities program at Seton Hall directly address how to connect the two.
This conference invites scholars, teachers and professionals to learn about and examine this emerging field of study and share and discuss innovative ways in which the humanities can and perhaps ought to be used to teach students and professionals about business. Examples of may include, but are not limited to, teaching business through literature or film, using the humanities to promote moral awareness, cultural competence, and creativity and entrepreneurship, teaching students to “deconstruct” business case studies to better understand how power shapes business practices and cultures, and using the humanities as a “disruptive” pedagogy. What humanistic knowledge, values, methods, skills, or experiences do companies wish their employees would learn better in college? How can academic programs genuinely integrate humanities with business education without diluting either? How can humanities not just critique business but also contribute constructively to it? What assignments or experiences might work best?
We welcome proposals for 15-20 minute papers or 1-hour panels or roundtables addressing questions like these.
Key Speakers: To be announced.
The conference will be in-person only.
Conference Registration Fees: The conference fee of $100 includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, parking and access to the entire program. Registration coming soon! Please check back for more details.
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be in the field of “business humanities,” broadly construed, and should include one’s name and department/institutional affiliation, project title, and an abstract not to exceed 500 words.
Please also indicate whether your submission is for an individual presentation or a panel presentation—for panel submission, please include these details for all panelists.
Proposals should be submitted by March 30, 2025 to [email protected].
Accepted presentations will be notified by April 30, 2025; conference registration will be required of all presenters.
Questions?
Please submit any questions to Abe Zakhem, Ph.D. at [email protected].