Barry Spunt, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and past Chair in the Department of Sociology. He is also on the doctoral faculty in Criminal Justice at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. He was born and raised in Boston and moved to the New York area in 1980. Dr. Spunt has been involved in substance misuse research for over 25 years. His early work focused on methadone treatment. Much of his work focuses on the relationship between drugs and violence. Most recently he completed a five-year ethnographic study of the heroin scene in New York City. He has also been funded to study the relationship between substance misuse and gambling, and substance misuse among the disabled. Currently, he is working on his first book, a social history of heroin in New York City.