Prof Brent Alan Hurd died in road accident

Bangalore, Nov 23 (UNI) Prof Brent Alan Hurd, a Fullbright scholar and visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM) here, was killed in a road accident on Mysore Road yesterday, police said today.

Police said Prof Hurd was killed when a city bus hit his bicycle while he was returning from a City Club.

He was immediately rushed to Rajarajeshwari Hospital, but doctors declared him brought dead, they said.

He was 38 and is survived by his parents, one brother and two sisters, a release from the IIJNM here said.

A much-travelled documentary filmmaker, Prof Hurd joined IIJNM on a contract to teach video journalism and documentary. He had just finished teaching a summer semester graduate class in documentary film at American University in Washington DC. In 2007-08 he had worked for eight months in Azerbaijan as a Fulbright Scholar lecturing at Baku State University. .

Prof Hurd had an enduring interest in describing the role of Islam in the modern world, an assignment he took after the 9/11 attacks to explain the religion to shell-shocked Americans.

He had produced a documentary entitled 'A return to Islam.' Recently, he was working on another documentary about Sufism, the mystical side of Islam.

The mortal remains of Prof Hurd would be flown to the US after a memorial service at IIJNM here tomorrow.

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