Susan J. Palmer

Susan Jean Palmer is a Canadian sociologist and author with a primary research interest new religious movements. She is a professor of Religious Studies at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at Concordia University.

Biography
Palmer her Masters and PHD at Concordia University. She is known for her research on gender, family, and sexuality in new religious movements, in particular the Rajneeshees and Raelians. She is currently researching apocalyptic new religious movements in Quebec and their ties to the sovereignty movement and to Old France, supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is also involved in a membership survey of Falun Gong with Professor David Ownby, at the Université de Montréal.

Rael
Shortly before writing her book about them, Aliens Adored: Rael's UFO Religion, she was blacklisted by the Raelians, with whom she had been friendly and continues to be so. According to Palmer, the blacklisting was a measure that allowed her to reflect upon the misquoting her words out of context by journalists, which both she and the Raelians were displeased with.