In memory xml serializer utility

XmlMemorySerializer.cs

using System.Xml.Serialization;
using System.IO;
using System;

namespace SoftwareSingularity.Utility
{
    public class XmlMemorySerializer
    {
        // TODO: Make this a generic class <T>
        private const string NAMESPACE_PREFIX = "examplews";
        private const string NAMESPACE = "https://services.example.com";

        public static string Serialize(object obj)
        {
            var xmlString = string.Empty;

            using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
            {
                xmlString = ReadStream(obj, stream);
            }
            return xmlString;
        }


        private static string ReadStream(object obj, MemoryStream stream)
        {
            string xmlString;
            InitializeStream(obj, stream);


            using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
            {
                xmlString = reader.ReadToEnd();
            }
            return xmlString;
        }

        private static void InitializeStream(object obj, MemoryStream stream)
        {
            var namespaces = new XmlSerializerNamespaces();
            namespaces.Add(NAMESPACE_PREFIX, NAMESPACE);

            var serializer = new XmlSerializer(obj.GetType());
            serializer.Serialize(stream, obj, namespaces);

            stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
        }

        public static T DeserializeXml<T>(string xmlString)
        {
            var xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
            var encoding = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();

            var bytes = encoding.GetBytes(xmlString);
            var stream = new MemoryStream(bytes);
            var returnObj = (T)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(stream);
            return returnObj;
        }

    }
}