Jill Bennett
Jill Bennett is Scientia Professor and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow at UNSW. She is Founding Director of The Big Anxiety Festival; the Big Anxiety Research Centre [BARC]; and the Felt Experience & Empathy Lab [fEEL] at UNSW. Jill’s immersive media and public engagement projects explore the role of creativity and trauma-informed design in supporting mental and emotional health with a particular focus on lived experience of trauma and distress. Her team have co-created ten major Virtual Reality projects, including: The Visit (ACM Originality and Impact Award, 2029), Perinatal Dreaming (Grand Jury Prize for Best VR, Sheffield DocFest, 2024) and Waumananyi, a collaboration with the NPY Women’s Council. fEEL has also pioneered the development of digitally embodied AI companions for peer support. Her most recent book is The Big Anxiety: Taking Care of Mental Health in Time of Crisis (Bloomsbury, 2022). Other recent articles document the impact of Big Anxiety workshops using immersive media to transform trauma.