Susan J. Palmer

Susan Jean Palmer (born 1946) 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. She has authored and edited several books on NRMs.

Palmer was raised in the Mormon faith.^[1] Her great-grandparents were polygamist Mormons, who moved to Canada from the United States to avoid the U.S. law against polygamy.^[2] Palmer received a B.A. in Honours English at McGill University before she received her Masters and Ph.D in Religion from Concordia University.

Palmer was a professor of religious studies at Dawson College in Westmount, Quebec, before becoming 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.^[3][4]

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.^[5] er book Aliens Adored documents the formation and beliefs of the Raëlian movement, with an eye to how scientific discoveries contribute to the formation of their human cloning theology.^[6][7] Her most recent work has focused on religious freedom issues. The New Heretics of France explores the state-sponsored persecution of religious minorities,^[8][9] 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.^[10][11]

She has two children, a son and a daughter. Outside of her academic interest in religion, she also has an interest in martial arts and choir singing.^[2]