Hanan Kassab-Hassan has over 30 years of academic, research, and cultural management experience. Ever since she got her PhD in theatre from the Sorbonne in Paris (1982), she has been a tenure professor and faculty member at the Damascus University in Syria, in addition to several professorships in the Arab International University in Damascus, the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus, the Higher Institute of Translation in Damascus, and the IESAV institute in the Saint Joseph university in Beirut, in Lebanon. 

Dr. Kassab-Hassan was also the General Manager of the Damascus Opera House (2009-2011), the General Secretary of the Damascus Arab Capital of Culture festival for the year 2008 (2007-2009), and the Dean of the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts (2006-2009). 

She was also a member of the Strategic Committee of the “Conseil Cuturel de l’Union Pour la Méditerranée” in France (2009 to 2011); an external evaluator for the cultural projects presented to the International Fund for the Promotion of Culture, UNESCO (2014 and 2015), and an individual consultant in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Section, UNESCO (2016). She is also a board member of Roberto Cimetta Fund (2015-present).

She was awarded the title of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; as well as Chevalier, and later Officier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques offered to her by the French government for her contribution to French culture.

Dr. Kassab-Hassan also directed theatre plays, managed workshops on dramaturgy, and wrote many research papers and articles in the fields of theater and the arts. She translated from French into Arabic and vice versa several theatrical texts, which included works by Jean Genet, Bernard Marie Koltès, Samuel Beckett, and Saadallah Wannous. 

She also co-authored a French-English-Arabic Dictionary of Terms and Concepts of Drama and Performing Arts, which is one of the main references in the field of theatre in the Arab world.

Dr Kassab-Hassan is one of the women presented in the Dictionary of Creative Women published in France, éditions Bellin, Des femmes, Antoinette Fouque), (2012).