Following the end of the Second World War, he resumed his studies graduating at the University of Edinburgh in 1951 with a 1st class honours MA in English Language and Literature.
[1] Upon graduation, Sanderson travelled to Italy on scholarships, but he returned to Edinburgh in 1952 to take up a position as Secretary-Archivist at the newly established School of Scottish Studies.
Stewart’s own research included studies of oral traditions of gypsies, material culture, fishing communities and folk beliefs, and he participated in field collection when possible.
[2] In 1957 he became a Senior Research Fellow at the School and in the same year, became an Assistant Editor of the newly founded journal Scottish Studies.
During this time he arranged the transfer the archives of the Institute of Dialect and Folklife Studies for preservation in the special collections of the Brotherton Library, at the University of Leeds.