Abby Cunniff is a postdoctoral scholar at the UCSB Blum Center for Poverty, Inequality, and Democracy. Their research brings together environmental justice, carceral geography, and environmental labor studies. Cunniff has worked on questions of climate justice, prison abolition, incarcerated labor organizing, and racial capitalism. They have carried out archival and ethnographic research on the interface between California’s carceral system and environmental hazards.

Cunniff's writing has appeared in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, Global Environmental Change, Journal of Global Environmental Justice, Crime, Media, Culture, and Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Sociology. Their book project, Lightning in the Air: How Incarcerated Firefighters Became the Backbone of Califorina's Environmental Workforce, 1915-2020 is under contract with the University of California Press for publication in 2027. Their work has beenn supported by the Switzer Foundationn, the Forest History Society, the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library, and the UCSC Institute for Social Transformation.

Cunniff earned their PhD in Environmental Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz in 2025, and their undergraduate degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University. They have also worked on research projects with Californians United for a Responsible Budget, No New Jails NYC, and the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Project.