DePauw Stories

A new grant will help DePauw University articulate an innovative vision for a business and leadership education that is anchored in the liberal arts and humanities. The $50,000 planning grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities allows an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students to establish curricular structures that will integrate humanistic teaching and scholarship with business and leadership education at DePauw.

“I'm really excited about the timing of this award in particular,” says project director Jeffrey Dunn, associate professor of philosophy and director of the Prindle Institute for Ethics. “DePauw has just launched a new School of Business and Leadership, so this is an ideal time to think about the relationship between business and the humanities.”

Dunn’s team of contributors represents several departments throughout the university, each of which offers its own unique insights to the conversation. Together with the input of students, they will craft new courses and determine the best way to align those courses into a possible new minor or certificate program.

In addition to building collaborative partnerships from diverse areas of academic inquiry, this process will ensure that DePauw students receive a holistic foundation to engage the most pressing global challenges of our time.

“Our guiding idea is that disciplines in the humanities – such as philosophy, history, and English – have something unique to offer students of business, but also that the study of business and leadership can enrich the traditional humanities.” Dunn explains. “I'm looking forward to working with colleagues and students across a variety of disciplines to build creative and innovative courses and educational opportunities.”

The work funded by this grant will begin this summer and continue throughout the coming academic year. Bringing together the study of business, leadership, and the humanities expands DePauw’s commitment to training leaders the world needs and sets the university on course to remain a national innovator in business and leadership education.