Dr Sydney Stewart Rose is a Visiting Researcher at the Pitt Rivers Museum, specialising in provenance research , informational uncertainty and contested collections.
Dr Stewart Rose has a doctorate in Archaeology from the University of Oxford (2024), supervised by Professor Dan Hicks. Her DPhil dissertation traced the intellectual genealogy of material exchange theory and the impact of theory on museum praxis and Pacific human remains restitution claims. She also has an MPhil in Archaeological Heritage from the University of Cambridge (2019), a Masters in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto (2018) and a BA in Classics from Concordia University (2016).
Sydney was a researcher on the Reconnecting 'Objects' project funded by VWStiftung at the Pitt Rivers Museum in 2025. In this role, she conducted large-scale provenance research, scoping high-risk objects collected during British military expeditions from 1850-1914 and documenting over 5000 contested materials in UK museums.
More recently, Sydney acted as an expert advisor and representative of the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD) in the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Afrikan Reparations, which delivered 14 recommendations for the treatment of human remains in collections to UK Parliament in 2025.
Her forthcoming book, A Short History of Long Silences (Cambridge University Press) is the first comprehensive survey of British museological returns. She has also published Towards A New Anthropological Voice (Liverpool University Press 2026), presenting a novel typology of redactions for archival uncertainty and arguing for new, speculative, and creative anthropological approaches to gaps in provenance history. Other works include Material Enactment of Disciplines at the University of Oxford Museums (Archaeological Review from Cambridge 2022) which explored the historic formation of collections and the opportunities inherent in the material manifestations of academic disciplines in collections boundaries. She has also documented the longstanding and obfuscated histories of African returns in Restitution, Social Justice, and the Benin Bronzes (Museums Etc. 2021).
Sydney’s approach is grounded in relationships and inclusivity, and she has worked with groups such as the Africa Oxford Initiative and Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford. Her contributions to exhibitions such as Far And Near: The Distance(S) Between Us (2017) at the Art Museum University of Toronto and Finding Myself in the Archive (2017) at the Toronto Ward Museum have focused on community engagement and giving voice to underrepresented communities.
She is currently the leader of the Public Memory Research Programme for Stanford University’s overseas study programme in Oxford, where she developed Stanford's first research-focused overseas programme and teaches on contemporary issues in museum studies including ethical stewardship and cultural heritage law.
Outside of the museum, Sydney has also served as President of the Linacre Boat Club (2023-2024) and organiser of the annual novice regatta for Oxford college rowers since 2022. She was awarded the Thomas Linacre Studentship in 2024 for this outstanding contribution to college life.
