On 30 June 2025, Ms Saba Al Kuntar will defend her PhD thesis on 'Negotiating Entrepreneurship in Refugee Contexts: Multi-level Analysis of Syrian Entrepreneurial Activities in Urban Areas in Lebanon.'
- PhD student
- Date
- Monday 30 Jun 2025, 15:00 - 16:30
- Type
- PhD defence
- Spoken Language
- English
- Room
- Aula B
- Location
- International Institute of Social Studies
Her research examines the experiences of Syrian refugees in Lebanon as they attempt to establish businesses within a highly precarious and restrictive environment.
The thesis identifies and analyzes three distinct types of entrepreneurs - striving, artisan, and established, based on their varying degrees of informality and access to resources such as skills, capital, social networks, and legal status. It highlights how these differences shape uneven experiences of precarity and inform diverse strategies for maneuvering constraints.
By foregrounding the role of intangible resources like social networks and unpacking how development-oriented approaches interact with host country politics, this research challenges dominant narratives of refugee self-reliance and emphasizes the political embeddedness of refugee economic life.
Watch the defence live

Download the abstracts
Doctoral Board
Chair
Doctoral dissertation supervisors
- Professor Thea Hilhorst
- Professor Peter Knorringa
Full Doctoral Committee
- Dr. Tamirace Fakhoury, Fletcher Institute, Tufts University
- Professor Catherine Brun, Center of Lebanese Studies
- Professor Enno Masurel, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Professor Wil Hout
- Dr. Sylvia Bergh
- More information
The Public Defence will take place on Monday, 30 June 2025 in the ISS auditorium (Aula B) and the ceremony will begin promptly at 15.00 hrs. The doors will be closed at the start of the Public Defence.
Children below the age of 7 are not allowed in the auditorium during the first part of the ceremony.
The ceremony will be followed by a reception in the Atrium of the ISS.
Professors are invited to join the academic procession.
- Related links
- ISS PhD programme