ABSTRACT
The treadmill. One of the most popular figures in academic work life. The origin of its notoriety is unclear. For some, the referent may be the academic theory of the treadmill of production—a political-economic theory on labor sector restructuring and the intensification of environmental degradation coordinated with the development of new technologies since WWII. 1 For others, the treadmill takes the more banal, literal form of a giant spinning hamster wheel—a symbol of the relentless rat race for publications, the impossible pursuit of a tenure line job or promotion, or perhaps the deeply unsatisfying contest for merit review points and one of the proliferating institutional awards that dangle in the wind promising the academic equivalent of employee of the month. 2
