Allison McCracken received her PhD in American Studies from The University of Iowa, with a focus in media studies and twentieth century U.S. cultural history. She is the author of the book
Real Men Don't Sing: Crooning in American Culture (Duke University Press, 2015), which has received several awards, including the Best First Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the Irving Lowens Book Award from the Society for American Music, the Woody Guthrie Prize from the International Association for the Study of Popular Music-United States (IASPM-US), and the Philip Brett Award from the American Musicological Society's LGBT Study Group. The book was also named one of 2016's "Great Reads" by NPR's Book Concierge and a Choice Academic Title of 2015. Most recently, she is the co-editor of the collection
a tumblr book: platform and cultures (Michigan University Press, 2020), which is available Open Access, free to the public. McCracken currently teaches courses in the history of American popular culture and media, social media, gender and sexuality, LGBTQA/sex U.S. history, the history of mental illness in the U.S., and American Studies methods.