CBM Lunch and Learn: When Business Meets the Liberal Arts: Why It Matters — and How It Shows Up in Teaching Practice

This presentation looks at why liberal arts learning still matters in business education and how it can be meaningfully integrated into everyday teaching. Rather than treating the liberal arts as an “add-on,” the session frames them as central to helping business students develop judgment, contextual awareness, and cultural understanding.

Using examples from Cultural Environment of International Business and International Marketing Management, the presentation briefly outlines what liberal arts education means in a business school setting and why it is especially important in a global, complex, and fast-changing environment. It then shares concrete examples of how perspectives from culture, language, ethics, and reflection are built into course design, assignments, and assessment.

The session is designed for faculty who are interested in practical, adaptable ways to integrate liberal arts learning into business courses while maintaining disciplinary rigor and relevance.

Join us via Zoom.

Dr. Anna Helm is an Associate Teaching Professor of International Business at the George Washington University School of Business and Faculty Director of GW’s Center for International Business Education & Research (GW-CIBER). Her teaching encompasses international business, cultural context, and applied consulting courses, and her scholarship spans business language studies, sustainability, and cross-cultural perspectives in management and marketing. Through GW-CIBER, Dr. Helm has led national initiatives focused on interdisciplinary business education, including faculty development, curriculum design, and case development at the intersection of liberal arts and business. She served as Principal Investigator of a Teagle Foundation grant (2016–2019) examining the integration of liberal arts learning into business curricula and has participated in national conversations on the future of business education, including past convenings of the Aspen Institute’s Business & Society Program.

To request accommodations for a disability, contact Accessibility Resources at accessibility.resources@metrostate.edu or 651.793.1549.