Chaebong Nam, PhD

Dr. Nam’s research centers on advancing cross-ideological civic education necessary to sustain a healthy constitutional democracy—especially through a range of experiential civics models, from community service and service-learning to action civics and student-led civics. Her goal is to help students make civic choices that are not only culturally relevant but also socially bridging and tactically effective in a diverse democracy. 

Before joining UMSL in 2022, she played a central role in developing educational resources, professional development, and assessment tools for student-led civics—a key component of Massachusetts’ recent civics mandate—at the Democratic Knowledge Project at Harvard University, where she also contributed to curriculum development, professional development, and research. She also researched online public participation in regulatory processes with the Cornell eRulemaking Initiative (CeRI) at Cornell Law School. Throughout her career, she has worked with diverse communities and schools across social, cultural, economic, and geographic domains.

At UMSL, she researches shifting state policies on civic education in Missouri and their impact on educators, administrators, and parents. She also co-designed the Grade 3 Missouri History Unit—We the Missourians: Diverse Changemakers—in collaboration with the School District of University City, aligning it with the Educating for American Democracy Roadmap and state standards. Dr. Nam serves as Principal Investigator on major educational grants, including the Spence Research Grant and the Educating for American Democracy Implementation Grant. Dr. Nam earned her BA and MA in Social Studies Education from Seoul National University in Korea and taught middle school social studies in Seoul. She later obtained a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Selected Publications

• Nam, C., Kidd, D., & Block, L. (forthcoming). Assessing what matters in civics: A practical and credible tool for student-led projects. The Social Studies. doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2025.2574880 (open access).
• Nam, C. (2025b). Beyond binaries: Rethinking student-led civics with culturally relevant, socially bridging, and tactically effective choices. Journal of Curriculum Studies. doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2025.2560846 (open access).
• Nam, C. (2025a). Designing student-led civics: A framework for authentic engagement with self, issues, and levers of change. Social Education, 85(5), 280-286. www.socialstudies.org/social-education/89/5 (open access).
• Nam, C., & Kidd, D. (2024). How young people get from voice to influence for change: Exploring the relations between tactical choices and civic efficacy. Journal of Information Technology and Politics. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2024.2313651
• Nam, C. (2023). Civic friendship in the wild: A historical example of Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Jane Addams. Schools: Educational Studies, 20(2), 348-68. doi.org/10.1086/727141.
• Nam, C. (2022). Jane Addams on civic education: Hull-House’s pluralistic civic inquiry for egalitarian relations. The Social Studies. 113(3), 137-152. doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2021.1997888.
• Nam, C. (2020). Behind the Interface: The role of human moderation for deliberative practice in an e-Rulemaking discussion. Government Information Quarterly, 37(1), 1-13. doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2019.101394. 

Program Involvement

• Elementary Education
• Secondary Education

Published Research Areas

• Social Studies
• Law
• Political Science
• Information Technology
• Library Science