Abby Cunniff
About Abby's Work
Abby Cunniff earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies with a designated emphasis in Sociology at UC Santa Cruz in 2025. They study environmental justice, carceral geography and environmental labor, specifically the environmental labor of incarcerated people in the United States. Their book, Lightning in the Air: How Incarcerated Firefighters Became the Backbone of California's Environmental Workforce, 1915-2020, is under contract with the University of California Press.
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. Their writing has appeared in Environment and Planning E, Spectre, Global Environmental Change, Crime, Media, Culture, Los Angeles Review of Books, Jacobin, and Prism.
