SBS Blog > PhD study: shaping a new identity by Nasreen Hasan Ashkanani

PhD study: shaping a new identity

By Nasreen Hasan Ashkanani - Posted on 15 January 2026

Doing her PhD into the lived experiences of women entrepreneurs has not only been an academic journey for Nasreen Hasan Ashkanani but one that has shaped her as a person too. Here, she outlines what the PhD journey has taught her.

When I began my PhD, I never realised how much my research journey would become part of my identity. As time passed by, the work gradually became something I lived and not just researched. My thesis, “Exploring Entrepreneurial Knowledge Construction through the Lived Experiences of Women Entrepreneurs,” grew into reflections of the questions I care about and the stories I feel responsible to honour.

Studying women’s entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia’s transforming context has shaped me as much as much as I have shaped the research. Applying a feminist critical lens as I approached this research, helped me see beyond the businesses these women build and understand the worlds they navigate and negotiate. The more I listened, the more my passion turned into curiosity, then curiosity into persistence, and persistence into contribution.

At the heart of this journey are women whose stories I have been privileged to explore and carry. Their courage in navigating gendered expectations, moral scrutiny, and shifting digital landscapes has made me more aware of my own journey as a female researcher, navigating my own identity, boundaries, and researcher voice. In many ways, their stories became mirrors, reflecting back questions I personally needed to confront, and reminding me of the strength found in vulnerability, persistence and purpose.

All the emotional investment, the endless cups of coffee, the commitment to honouring these women’s stories, and the countless hours spent questioning, analysing, and rewriting, has been met this year with two meaningful recognitions at the RENT (Research in Entrepreneurship and Small Business) 2025 Conference, held in November: I received a nomination for the José María Veciana Best Paper Award titled “Empowered by Technology, Constrained by Tradition: The Dual Impact of Digitalisation on Rural Saudi Women Entrepreneurs” and the Award for Best Doctoral Proposal. These honours feel like a testament to the women who opened up to me sharing their lived realities and gave meaning to my research more than my research effort.

But more than anything, this journey has taught me that research becomes powerful when it becomes personal. When you allow your work to shape you, when you follow your curiosity with honesty, and when you approach your field with heart, something remarkable happens: You stop “doing a PhD,” and you start becoming the researcher you were meant to be.

For anyone beginning this path, my advice is simple: Let the research draw you in. Let curiosity guide you. Let passion give the work meaning.

Because when you put your whole self into the work, the PhD becomes more than a degree, it becomes a transformation.