Susan Jean Palmer is a Canadian sociologist of religion and author whose primary research interest is new religious movements. Formerly a professor of religious studies at Dawson College in Westmount, Quebec, she is currently an Affiliate Professor at Concordia University, and is also the Principal Investigator on the four-year SSHRC-funded research project, "Children in Sectarian Religions" at McGill University in Montreal, where she teaches courses on new religious movements.

Education

Palmer received a B.A. in Honours English at McGill University before she received her Masters and Ph.D in Religion from Concordia.

Work

She is best known for her 1994 book on gender issues, ''Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions''. She has engaged in field research with at least 30 different groups and is considered to be a leading authority on the Twelve Tribes communities, the

Nuwaubian Nation The Nuwaubian Nation, Nuwaubian movement, or United Nuwaubian Nation () is an American new religious movement founded and led by Dwight York, also known as Malachi Z. York. York began founding several black Muslim groups in New York in 1967. H ...

and

Raëlism Raëlism, also known as Raëlianism or Raelian Movement is a UFO religion founded in 1970s France by Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël. Scholars of religion classify Raëlism as a new religious movement. The group is formalised as the Inte ...

. Her topics range from apocalyptic activity, prophecy, charisma, communalism, childrearing, racialist religions, to research ethics and methods in studying new religions. Her article "Caught Up in the Cult Wars: Confessions of a Canadian Researcher" has reappeared in several anthologies. Her most recent work has focused on religious freedom issues. ''The New Heretics of France'' explores the state-sponsored persecution of religious minorities, and ''The Nuwaubian Nation'' argues that Black Nationalist prophets in the US are targeted by networks of interest groups and rarely receive a fair trial. Her book, ''Aliens Adored: Rael's UFO Religion'', documents the formation and beliefs of the Raelian movement, with an eye to how scientific discoveries contribute to the formation of their human cloning theology.''Aliens Adored: Raël's UFO Religion''
New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

Bibliography

* ''The Rajneesh Papers'' (with Arvind Sharma) (1993) Motilal Banarsidass Publishers , * ''Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions'' (1994) Syracuse University Press , * ''Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem'' (with Thomas Robbins) (1997) Routledge , * ''Children in New Religions'' (with Charlotte E. Hardman) (1999) Rutgers University Press , * ''Aliens Adored: Rael's UFO Religion'' (2004) Rutgers University Press , * ''The Nuwaubian Nation : Black Spirituality and State Control'' (2010) Ashgate Publishing * '' The New Heretics of France, Minority Religions, la Republique, and the Government-Sponsored "War on Sects" '' (in press June, 2011) Oxford University Press , * '' Storming Zion: Exploring State Raids on Religious Communities'' (with

Stuart A. Wright Stuart A. Wright is an American Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas who has served as a legal expert in several high profile trials in the Unite ...

) (2016) Oxford University Press

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Susan J. Canadian non-fiction writers Researchers of new religious movements and cults Canadian occult writers 1946 births Living people Canadian women non-fiction writers Dawson College faculty