Communication and culture chair dies after accident in Bermuda

Alex Doty, chair of IU’s Department of Communication and Culture, has died after a motorcycle accident in Bermuda.

Doty was vacationing when he was struck by an allegedly impaired man riding a motorcycle. He suffered a massive head trauma and severe bleeding in his brain, according to Facebook group, "Friends of Alex Doty."

The page also said Doty had been in the country for only three hours when the accident occurred.

"The team at the hospital said that Alex was not, and had not been, in any pain," Patricia Ingham, an associate professor of English, wrote on the page.

Since the accident, a 27-year-old man has been arrested in connection to the collision, according to the Royal Gazette newspaper in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Larry Singell, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, sent an email to Doty's colleagues Saturday, when Doty was in critical condition at King Edward's Hospital in Bermuda.

“We need to work with Alex's family to make sure that we are sensitive to their needs in their tremendous time of grief," Singell said in the email. "Let me just say just how truly sorry I am for your loss. In my brief time working with Alex, I found him to be a wonderful colleague and human being, and I know how much a shock this must be to all of you who knew and worked with him.”

According to an IU press release, Doty specialized in gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and feminist film theory. He was an admirer of IU scientist Alfred Kinsey's work and sat on the board of directors of the Kinsey Institute.

"Alex was respected across the campus, and we will miss his voice and his presence as a faculty leader," Bloomington Provost Lauren Robel said in the release. "We have lost a valued colleague with Alex's passing."

Jean Robinson, executive associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of political science, will assume chair responsibilities until an interim chair is named, Singell said.

Continue checking idsnews.com for updates.

— Michael Majchrowicz and Charles Scudder