Emily Stokes-Rees

Biography

Emily Stokes-Rees is director of the School of Design and the Iris Magidson Endowed Professor of Design Leadership.

In addition to holding a doctorate in material anthropology and museum ethnography (Oxford, 2007), Stokes-Rees is a museum professional with over 20 years of experience in a variety of positions, from exhibition development and interpretation to education and collections management. Her research centers on evolving ideas around cultural citizenship and representation in postcolonial Asia. More broadly, she is interested in how museums and their collections might act as agents for social change. Her publications include a book on postcolonial museums in Asia (Rowman and Littlefield International, 2019) and a wide variety of journal articles and book chapters on museums and heritage sites across the globe.

Stokes-Rees currently serves on a number of museum and professional boards and is involved in University leadership on many levels, from the University Senate to accreditation to faculty mentoring. She also recently completed a two-year term as editor of the journal Museum Anthropology and has taught courses on cultural heritage preservation, professional practice, curatorship and interpretation for the graduate program in museum studies. She loves all the hands-on, creative aspects of what she does and treasures every moment spent working with collections both in the classroom and the museum.

Education

• D.Phil., University of Oxford
• M.A., University of Waterloo
• B.A., Queen’s University