Biography
Palmer received her Masters and PhD in Religion from Concordia University. 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, United Nuwaubian Nation and the Raelian Movement. 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 U.S. 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 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.
Read more about this topic: Susan J. Palmer
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.”
—André Maurois (1885–1967)
“Just how difficult it is to write biography can be reckoned by anybody who sits down and considers just how many people know the real truth about his or her love affairs.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)