Name Susan Palmer | Role Author | |
 | ||
Full name Susan Jean Palmer People also search for Thomas Robbins, Arvind Sharma, Tom Robbins Books Aliens Adored, Moon Sisters - Krishna, AIDS as an apocalyptic metaphor, The Rajneesh Papers | ||
harp on the lake susan j palmer
Susan Jean Palmer (born April 14, 1946) is a Canadian sociologist and author whose primary research interest is new religious movements. She is a professor of religious studies at Dawson College in Westmount, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. She teaches sociology of religion courses.
Contents
Susan J. Palmer - Concordia University, Montréal
Education
Palmer received her Masters and PhD 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 and Raëlism.
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.
Shortly before writing her book about them, Aliens Adored: Rael's UFO Religion, she was blacklisted by the Raelians, with whom she still is friendly. According to Palmer, the blacklisting was a measure that allowed her to reflect upon the quoting her words out of context by journalists with which both she and the Raelians were displeased.