A SURVIVOR'S EDUCATION

A historian recounts her experience with domestic violence and academia, exploring how larger patterns of abuse and misogyny affect whose stories are heard.

Neumeyer moved to Berkeley in 2016 to complete her doctorate in history, but when her romantic relationship with a fellow student turned violent, her education expanded to include learning how to navigate Title IX and what it means to be a survivor of abuse. In this sharp debut memoir, the author expertly weaves together historical abuses of power on a global scale with carefully researched stories of interpersonal violence, allowing her to reflect deeply about—and beyond—her own experiences. She describes her process of coming to understand her story through those she encountered in her research. “Posing us like puppets in an abusive playhouse like any other allows me to put my experience together with my education and capture how it feels when personal and intellectual worlds collide,” she writes. Though Neumeyer remains firmly rooted in her own voice, her work as a historian, with a focus on Russia and Eastern Europe, offers pertinent insights from multiple perspectives and across time. In narrating her personal experience, she presents documentation from the investigation of her case to supplement her memories, yet she also reminds readers that “we are all imperfect historians of our own pasts whose recollections are colored by our present knowledge and desires.” Despite the deeply personal nature of the author’s subject, her intricate narrative spirals out from herself to examine Russia’s war against Ukraine and Trump’s changes to Title IX processes, among other timely events. This is a book for all readers, though survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault will find particular richness in Neumeyer’s compelling first book.

A smart, powerful memoir gives a fresh perspective on what it means to be a survivor.