Anetha McLean Batista '19
MA Art History and Criticism
Anetha McLean Batista came to Stony Brook from Panamá after receiving her Bachelor’s
degree in Studio Arts to earn a Master’s in Art History and Criticism. She liked Stony
Brook for several reasons, including its close proximity to New York City and its
artistic environment. “I was looking for a specific program that was not too narrow in its scope of studies
and Stony Brook came up. I liked the MA in Art History and Criticism program, because
it offered the possibility of covering different art periods through different approaches,
while other universities were completely oriented toward Contemporary Art. I also
like that the Art Department is small and, therefore, personalized.”
Anetha speaks highly of Professor James Rubin, with whom she has taken several classes and considers a mentor. “He is not only very smart and full of knowledge,” she says, “but he enjoys sharing his expertise while encouraging us to observe, think, and read our sources closely.”
In return, Professor Rubin does not hesitate to sing Anetha’s praises. “I have had Anetha in my graduate seminars two years in a row, and I am her MA thesis advisor,” he explains. “English is not Anetha’s native language, but from the very first day she overcame her difficulty to participate in class discussion. It was obvious from the beginning that she was following discussion closely and her contributions were directly pertinent to the points being made or sought.”
Professor Rubin also described Anetha’s MA thesis as a fine piece of work; in it, Anetha explains the Slavic origins and aspects of the art of Alphonse Mucha, who is better known for his highly stylized Parisian poster art. Anetha showed the persistence of Slavic influence even in his French works as well as Mucha’s continuing faith in Slavic nationalism.
Anetha is also proud of her ability to adapt to the different cultural aspects of university life in an unfamiliar country. Language was the hardest obstacle for her to overcome - she did so by always having a dictionary handy for reference, and by making sure she remembered any corrections that people made to her grammar or pronunciation.
After graduation, Anetha plans to explore the U.S culture, visiting museums and sightseeing before heading back to Panama. There, she hopes to spread the knowledge she has gained at Stony Brook and the U.S. as a whole.
Her advice to incoming freshmen is simple: Never give up.