University of Calgary

Dropping In

Submitted by alumni on Sat, 04/02/2016 - 22:40.

Dropping In

From bobble-heads, masks and symbolic microphones to topsy-turvy shelves of books — join professor Ron Glasberg in his office. Marie Kondo would not be impressed!
By Mike Fisher

Getting the Big Picture
Walk into Associate Professor Ron Glasberg’s (Communication, Media and Film) office on main campus and you enter a precarious world.


Books seem to sprout from white rows of shelves. Chockablock items atop one another are set to topple. A mask peers from the wall, an elfin sculpture gives you the side-eye and a swirling painting balanced on high, asks, “Are you dead or alive?” Amidst the encroaching clutter, Glasberg sits, Yoda-like, in his blue office chair, smiling.

“I’ve been in this new space for about two years,” says Glasberg, a popular, award-winning teacher who this year will mark his 26th teaching at the university. He gestures to the books. “I got rid of a huge number that were sitting in the hallway. There was a pile outside my old office but that finally got shovelled away.”

He’s taught Minister of Veteran Affairs Kent Hehr. He’s taught Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi. He’s taught his students for years to try and think for themselves.

“My goal is to get the big picture,” he says. His teachings centre on the four big themes in his students’ lives: life and death, freedom and slavery, wisdom and folly, and good and evil. “Students are not interested only in jobs. They want to be educated. They want to find their way around the world of ideas. They want to get that big picture view.”

So we sent a photographer to Glasberg’s office to, well, try and get that big picture. U

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