Award-winning journalist, author and documentary maker Jess Hill has been announced as the tenth 2026 Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellow at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre. 
 
Now in its tenth year, the Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellowship is a pioneering initiative connecting leading Australian creative writers with global health researchers to address complex health and social challenges through literature.

The fellowship was established in 2016 through the generous support of University of Sydney alumna and patron Judy Harris. It gives writers the time, financial support and access to researchers needed to begin an ambitious project exploring health and the forces shaping it.

Hill, whose bestselling book See What You Made Me Do won the 2020 Stella Prize and helped transform Australia’s understanding of coercive control, will receive $100,000 to support a year-long residency at the Charles Perkins Centre. 

During the residency she will work on a new work of narrative non-fiction, The Captured Mind (working title), examining how conspiracy movements, extremist subcultures, misogynist ideologies, and coercive controllers – once thought to affect only a small minority – now commonly infiltrate families, friend groups and communities.  

“Over the past 20 years, something once rare has become frighteningly common: someone we love falls under the sway of a belief system, subculture or political ideology to the point where they become barely recognisable,” Hill said. 

“People don’t fall into conspiracy movements or abusive relationships because they are weak or stupid. They fall because certain environments are engineered to capture them,” Hill said.

“Just as food environments shape metabolic health, information environments - whether digital, legislative or interpersonal - influence cognition and emotional regulation. At its heart, this project is an examination of what happens when somebody’s information environment is radically altered.

“The defining question of this project is: how can we reach someone whose perspective has been captured? And can we do anything to prevent them being susceptible in the first place?” 

Jess Hill will work alongside researchers in systems thinking, behavioural science, evidence, policy and public influence. Her project will explore undue influence as a social determinant of health, mapping how coercive information environments can contribute to social isolation, psychological distress, and rejection of evidence-based medicine and public health guidance. 

The project aligns with the Centre’s Evidence, Policy and Influence Collaborative, including its Fighting Truth Decay node, and its work examining the biological, social and environmental forces shaping health and wellbeing.

For the past decade, Hill has focused on translating complex structural issues and academic knowledge into clear, gripping narratives for broad public audiences and decision makers.

Her first book, See What You Made Me Do, examines the dynamics of power and control in domestic abuse. The book was adapted into a three-part SBS documentary series. 

The series shifted attention beyond physical violence to how psychological, financial, emotional and social domination can entrap victim-survivors. Hill’s work has also informed training and education across policing, health, the judiciary and the public service, as well as influencing public policy.  

“My work has examined how power and control operate inside relationships, as well as across institutions and systems,” Hill said. 

“It sounds pretty grim, but really, this is the stuff we can feel happening around us, but often can’t put into words. As See What You Made Me Do did for domestic abuse, I want The Captured Mind to give readers the language and historical context to recognise one of the defining phenomenon of our time.”

The Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellowship gives creative writers the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Charles Perkins Centre’s multidisciplinary community and draw on research across health, science and society.

Previous works developed through the fellowship include Alana Valentine’s play Made to Measure, which premiered at the Seymour Centre in 2019;  Charlotte Wood’s novel The Weekend, shortlisted for the Stella Prize and was the Australian Book Industry Award’s Literary Fiction Book of the Year; Emily Maguire’s novel Love Objects which was shortlisted for the Literary Fiction Book of the Year, Australian Book Industry Awards 2022; and Fiona Wright’s novel Kill Your Boomers.

Hill said the Charles Perkins Centre’s systems approach strongly resonated with her creative practice.

“Chronic conditions are not just medical phenomena. They are shaped by many of the same forces I investigate: trauma, entrapment, coercion and social disadvantage,” she said.

“I’m so thrilled to be trusted with this opportunity - it’s such a rare gift for an Australian author. Honestly, before this was granted, I wasn’t sure I could afford to write another book. This fellowship has made writing feel possible again. I cannot wait to connect with trailblazing researchers across the Centre to learn more of the cutting-edge thinking on what it takes to counter radicalisation and rebuild trust.”

“The ultimate goal is to produce a book and, with luck, an adaptation for television and podcast,” Hill said. “When people have the language to understand undue influence and thought reform, they gain the knowledge they need to resist and recover from it.” 
 
Professor Leanne Redman, Academic Director at the Charles Perkins Centre said: “As we celebrate the appointment of our 10th Writer-in-Residence Fellow, Jess Hill exemplifies everything this fellowship was created to support: fearless, ambitious writers tackling issues of profound social significance. Over the past decade, the Judy Harris Writer-in-Residence Fellowship has demonstrated the value of bringing creative thinkers and researchers together.

“At the Charles Perkins Centre, we believe discovery alone is not enough,” Professor Redman said. “Creating impact requires us to understand people: how they think, who they trust, and how they navigate an increasingly complex world of information and influence. Jess’s work has already changed national conversations, and we are excited to support her next major investigation into the forces that shape human behaviour, health and society.” 
 
Professor Stephen Simpson, Chair of the Writer-in-Residence Board at the Charles Perkins Centre, welcomed Hill’s selection: “Jess Hill brings an exceptional combination of literary excellence, public impact and systems thinking to the Writer-in-Residence Fellowship. Her ability to bridge rigorous research and compelling storytelling makes her ideally placed to create a work that will deepen public understanding of influence, trust and wellbeing in contemporary society.”