[1][2] Cunningham attended University of Connecticut for his undergraduate academic career, studying civil engineering and English.
[3] In 2015, he became one of the three inaugural faculty members to reestablish the sociology department at Washington University in St. Louis, along with Adia Harvey Wingfield and Jake Rosenfeld.
He has worked as an academic consultant for WGBH Educational Foundation and Facing History and Ourselves; was a consulting expert for Moore et al. v. Franklin County, MS and Averill et al. v. City of Seattle; and has been a research collaborator for the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University School of Law for over ten years, the Mississippi Truth Project, and the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
He is currently on the Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE); previously spent four years on the Council for the Section on Peace, War and Social Conflict; and was the Chair of the Gordon Hirabayashi Human Rights Book Award committee within the Section on Human Rights - among several other positions.
[3][14] Cunningham has won numerous awards for his research, writing, and teaching, which include: His most recent book, Klansville, U.S.A., has been the recipient of many accolades: