Linking Science and Liberal Arts to Create a Unique Experience for Students and Faculty
Learn more about how the liberal arts and sciences are cultivated at Babson.
A Liberal Arts and Sciences Foundation for Business and Beyond
Babson’s curriculum recognizes the deep value of liberal arts at an undergraduate business school. By blending courses in business fundamentals with the liberal arts and sciences, we deliver a well-rounded educational experience that will prepare you to be an informed and responsible global citizen.
We require our students to take courses in the liberal arts and sciences throughout their time at Babson so that they can build critical thinking and communication skills for the modern world. Our core courses in the liberal arts complement the knowledge and experiences you’ll gain through learning business fundamentals, giving you the chance to see how the business world is intertwined with society and the natural world. In turn, our general education in the liberal arts and sciences gives you the opportunity to infuse new perspectives not just in your core business courses, but in your relationship with the world.
Core Requirements in the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Successful business and entrepreneurial leaders are not only able to act, but also create and engage with the world in innovative ways. Babson’s core requirements in the liberal arts and sciences help you to develop frameworks for understanding the world that you’ll contribute to, impact, and conduct business in.
We want the world to be better. We’re trying to teach students to think in terms of these systems, so they can make it better.”
Professor Marjorie Feld
History and Society Division
By practicing writing and research in a range of academic disciplines, Babson students develop strong communication and critical thinking skills that will benefit them not only as business leaders, but as people. Our talented faculty facilitate students’ capacity to understand different societies and cultures, artistic expressions, and scientific processes in ways that allow them to reflect on subjects within and outside of themselves. With the liberal arts and sciences providing frameworks for understanding complex global challenges, you also will emerge with a better understanding of how to wield business and entrepreneurship as a positive engine for change.
Explore Our Core Courses in the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Babson students are expected to take liberal arts and sciences courses at the foundation, intermediate, and advanced levels. You’ll continue to take both liberal arts and business courses throughout your academic journey and at increasingly higher levels of sophistication, emerging with a holistic education that is invaluable to the modern business professional. Explore the courses you’ll be taking throughout your Babson journey below.
Foundation Courses
Babson’s foundation courses in the liberal arts and sciences establish essential skills and intellectual standards for a student’s development throughout their four years at Babson. The foundation courses focus on building communication and critical thinking skills that are applicable to professional and other endeavors.
- Writing Across Contexts (WRT 1001)
- Foundations of Critical Inquiry (FCI 1000)*
- Natural Science and Technology (NST 10XX) course requirement*
*You may select one of several courses to fulfill this requirement.
Highlighted Courses
Human Biotechnology (NST 1040)
Dive into the basic scientific concepts, ethical considerations, and practical applications of biotechnology in our daily lives. You will gain a number of perspectives on personalized medicine, stem cells, drug discovery, development, and regulation, food, and the environment, all of which are directly connected to human health and well-being. By the end of this course, you will recognize the importance of biotechnology in the world today, and grasp its strengths and limitations as we move forward into the middle of the 21st century.
Climate and Human Health (NST 1070)
Investigate the interaction between the spheres of natural science and human health. Draw connections between global changes such as sea level and temperature rise with human impacts, including increasing climate migration, spread of infectious disease, and threats to food security. This course focuses on the background of various global health issues and their links to climate using the scientific method and various data-driven activities to evaluate research questions. You also will evaluate the integrity of scientific data, and assess reliable sources of information.
Intermediate Courses
Intermediate courses in the liberal arts and sciences allow students to become familiar with a number of frameworks and to explore the themes, issues, and questions that were introduced and explored in the first year. As you begin to gain confidence in your knowledge and skills, you’ll also be able to tailor your classes to your interests. You'll get the opportunity to select which course you’ll take to fulfill requirements in History and Society, Literary and Visual Arts, Culture and Values, and Socio-Ecological Systems.
- Socio-Ecological Systems (SES 2000)*
- Predictive Business Analytics (AQM 2000)
- Research Writing (WRT 2000)
- History and Society (HSS 20XX)*
- Literature and the Arts (LTA 20XX)*
- Cultural Studies and Philosophy (CSP 20XX)*
*You may select one of several course options to fulfill this requirement.
Highlighted Courses
Socio-Ecological Systems (SES 2000)
Babson’s Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) requirement teaches students how to solve real-world problems through a sustainability lens by blending the social sciences, humanities, and ecological sciences into a unique experience. You’ll get the opportunity to learn from two faculty members from the natural and social sciences, respectively, to get a truly interdisciplinary perspective on integrated sustainability and systems thinking. After completing the SES requirements, you’ll emerge with a multidimensional perspective on ecological impact and structural injustice that you can integrate into your business or personal aspirations.
The Modern American City (HSS 2058)
Learn how urban centers such as Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles have shaped modern American history. Learn about topics ranging from Boston's institutions of culture, to the architecture and music of the Jazz Age in New York, the development of public housing, to the counterculture movement in San Francisco.
East Asian Cultures (CSP 2009)
Discover the cultures of East Asia through an interdisciplinary lens. Focusing on thematic principals from ancient, medieval, and modern periods, this course will examine the change and continuity of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean culture and society. This course will be approached through texts in philosophy, religion, anthropology, art, literature, film, and music that span time and geography across the East Asian region.
Utopia and Dystopia: Literary Cultural Expressions (LTA 2069)
Explore the differences of utopian and dystopian realities expressed in literary and cultural texts. This course will question, is there much of a real difference between the two? Use literature to reflect on realities and ideals regarding how we govern, the ways we create order, the ways we progress, and the ways we treat others.
Advanced Courses
Our advanced courses in the liberal arts and sciences allow you to explore topics that you’re interested in with depth and creativity. In addition to participating in an intensive seminar in your advanced liberal arts coursework, your classroom experience will come alive through hands-on learning opportunities, such as simulations, or activism and service projects in the Greater Boston area.
- Advanced Liberal Arts Course (46XX)*
- 3 Advanced Liberal Arts Electives*
- Advanced Experiential Course*
*You may select one of several courses to fulfill this requirement.
Highlighted Courses
Global Pop (MUS 4620)
"Global pop" is hybrid music that results from contact between two or more cultures. It begins locally and achieves translocal or transnational popularity through mass media. Using case studies drawn from five continents, this course examines how such music acquires ideological force and accrues historical layers as it circulates around the world. In scrutinizing the discourse and business of global pop, you will focus on such issues as authenticity, hybridity, cultural imperialism, nationalism, personal identity, censorship, sustainability, political protest, ownership, and appropriation.
Strategic Game Theory (ECN 3667)
Game theory provides a simple, but rich, framework for analyzing once-off and repeated interplay between people or firms, where the manner in which each reacts depends upon the other's reaction: strategic interaction. These interactions occur in markets, in organizations, and in the household. Through lectures, experiential learning, and computer simulations, you’ll gain an understanding of many interactions they may encounter in their business and personal lives; including price wars, public policy, the value of cooperation interactions, and the value of information.
The History and Ethics of Capitalism (HIS 4670)
This course deals with the history of capitalism from early modern times to the present, and aims not just to uncover the story of capitalist enterprise but also the cultural values and social institutions accompanying capitalism. You will work to address the tension as well as the affinity between capitalism on the one hand and, on the other, contextual cultural values and social institutions. You will also focus on the way that capitalist power subverts as well as supports the free market economy and democratic political processes.
Continue to Grow Your Interests at Babson
Babson is home to well-rounded students from around the world who arrive here with a multitude of passions and interests they’re eager to explore. Our liberal arts and sciences courses allow students to explore and discover a wide range of interests, which you can continue to build upon through your curricular and extracurricular pursuits. Our students find natural intersections between concepts learned through business fundamentals and the liberal arts and sciences, and explore these intersections through business innovation and entrepreneurship.
- We offer an extensive catalog of liberal arts and sciences courses that support students’ academic exploration of a wide variety of topics, but it doesn’t stop there. Babson students also can opt to take courses at Wellesley College and the F.W. Olin College of Engineering through our Three-College Collaboration.
- Apply to the Babson Honors Program and take on a research project that showcases the versatility of your Babson business degree. Honors students at Babson have independently researched topics ranging from pop music to the evolution of beauty standards to public education in India.
- Step outside the classroom, and participate in creative workshops and programming through BabsonARTS, where you can foster further connections between creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
- Unleash your creativity at the Weissman Foundry, a state-of-the-art makerspace where you’ll have opportunities to learn, create, and collaborate with faculty and peers.
Get Inspired
Our courses in the liberal arts and sciences can help open doors in your approach to business and the world around you.
See how past and present students have relied on knowledge and themes from the liberal arts and sciences to incorporate Babson’s core educational themes of entrepreneurship, diversity and inclusion, global perspectives, and sustainability into their academic and extracurricular endeavors.
Storytelling for Social Justice in Flint and Beyond
Melissa Denizard ’20, both a Natalie Taylor Scholar and a Frank & Eileen™ Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Scholar at Babson, fell in love with filmmaking in high school.
Princess Diana Award Winner Brings Business to the Arts
“Babson gives me opportunities to really go outside of the classroom and do things that are really in tune with my career path,” says Kyla Christie ’22, from Jakarta, Indonesia.
More Than Profits: The Importance of Integrated Sustainability
Andrew Liddington ’18 is a senior analyst at Sustainable Energy Advantage, a renewable energy consulting firm. His passion for sustainability work was nurtured at Babson.
An Activist, Entrepreneurial Leader, and Even a Poet: Meet Demarre Johnson ’24
Demarre Johnson ’24 viewed his opportunity to be the student speaker for Babson’s celebration of Juneteenth as a moment to educate his community peers about the holiday and the oppression that minorities face.
Fueled by Love of Art, Babson Student Finds Novel Application for NFTs
Magnus Aske ’23 found a way to combine his love of art and entrepreneurship and came up with a project involving the antiquities collection of a foreign country.
