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.

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

She is best known for her 1994 book on gender issues, Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions.^[1]

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" ^[2] has reappeared in several anthologies.

Her most recent work has focused on religious freedom issues. The New Heretics of France^[3] explores the state-sponsored persecution of religious minorities, and The Nuwaubian Nation ISBN 9780199735211^[4] 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.^[5]

• The Rajneesh Papers (with Arvind Sharma) (1993) Motilal Banarsidass Publishers ISBN 81-208-1080-5, ISBN 978-81-208-1080-8
• Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women's Roles in New Religions (1994) Syracuse University Press ISBN 0-8156-0382-7, ISBN 978-0-8156-0382-5
• Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem (with Thomas Robbins) (1997) Routledge ISBN 0-415-91649-6, ISBN 978-0-415-91649-3
• Children in New Religions (with Charlotte E. Hardman) (1999) Rutgers University Press ISBN 0-8135-2620-5, ISBN 978-0-8135-2620-1
• Aliens Adored: Rael's UFO Religion (2004) Rutgers University Press ISBN 0-8135-3476-3, ISBN 978-0-8135-3476-3
• The Nuwaubian Nation : Black Spirituality and State Control (2010) Ashgate Publishing ISBN 978-0-7546-6255-6
• The New Heretics of France, Minority Religions, la Republique, and the Government-Sponsored "War on Sects" (in press June, 2011) Oxford University Press ISBN 978-0-19-973521-1, ISBN 0-19-973521-2
• Storming Zion: Exploring State Raids on Religious Communities (with Stuart A. Wright) (2016) Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195398892