Dr. Judit Varga

Judit Varga is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She is part of the ERC-funded FluidKnowledge project and the Science and Evaluation Studies research group, both led by Prof. Dr. Sarah de Rijcke. She focuses on exploring values in science using mixed methods. Science comprises different ways to create ‘valid’ knowledge. For example, scientometrics and Science and Technology Studies (STS) often differ in how they establish ‘valid’ knowledge claims. Judit is interested in how ways of knowing converge, diverge and get coordinated in science, both as an object of study and in her own scientific practice. As part of FluidKnowledge, Judit explores ways to combine computational data analysis (scientometrics) with concepts and methods from STS to study the relationship between (e)valuation and knowledge production in Ocean Science.

Judit completed her PhD in STS at the University of Nottingham in partnership with Ordnance Survey in July 2021. Her doctoral research explored how STS and scientometrics can be combined to study the diversification of social scientific knowledge produced with computational methods, through a case study about geotagged social media research. Her methods included interviews, participant observation and scientometrics. Prior to her PhD, Judit worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Southampton, at Trinity College Dublin and at Canvas8. She completed degrees in psychology at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest (BA, 2012, first class) and Trinity College Dublin (MSc, 2013, with distinction). Her BA and MSc research explored how quantitative or experimental methods in psychology can account for situated and dynamically unfolding intersubjective practices.
 

Publications