Perla Serfaty

Perla Serfaty (pen names, Perla Serfaty-Garzon and Perla Korosec-Serfaty; born in 1944 in Marrakesh, Morocco) is a French and Canadian academic, sociologist, psychosociologist, writer, and essayist, known in particular for her work on home and intimacy. She is a theorist of domestic intimacy, hospitality and the appropriation of inhabited places, and an expert in environmental psychology. Her book ''Vieillesse et Engendrements. La longévité dans la tradition juive.'', dedicated to the traditional Jewish view of longevity as transmitted by the Hebrew Bible, was awarded the J. I. Segal Jewish Book Award in 2014. The contribution of Serfaty's work to environmental psychology was distinguished by her induction in 2018 into the International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS) Hall of Fame.

Early life and education
Perla Serfaty moved to France in 1964. She studied philosophy, psychology, and sociology at the University of Strasbourg, where she followed the teachings of Georges Gusdorf, André Canivez, Georges Lanteri-Laura, Didier Anzieu, and Henri Lefebvre. She joined the laboratory of Professor Paul-Henry Chombart de Lauwe at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, (École Pratique des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales), Paris V – Sorbonne, where she received her doctorate in literature and humanities (1985, sociologie).

Career and research
Appointed to the Institute of Psychology at the University of Strasbourg in 1969, she introduced into her teaching environmental psychology, a young discipline that was not taught in France at the time, where it was still practically unknown. Serfaty took an active part in the development of research in environmental psychology as well as in its institutional recognition.

She organized the first international conference devoted to environmental psychology to be held in France: the 3rd International Architectural Psychology Conference (IAPC) (Strasbourg, 1976), ), in Strasbourg, the theme of which was ‘The Appropriation of Space.’ The creation of the IAPS (International Association of People-Environmental Studies) in 1981 consolidated, institutionalized and gave formal recognition to the international character of the IAPC.

Perla Serfaty took an active part in the development of research and theory of Environmental Psychology as well as in its institutional recognition as well as in the conceptualization within the framework of this discipline of the notions of dwelling, ‘chez-soi,’ hospitality, loss of home in migration, as well as of appropriation of space.

Among Perla Serfaty’s research interests are also sociability and the modes of appropriation of public urban spaces, the transformation of the meaning of protection of architectural and urban heritage as well as of intangible cultural heritage.

Awards and honours

 * 2014, J. I. Segal Jewish Book Award
 * 2018, induction into the International Association of People-Environment Studies (IAPS) Hall of Fame

Selected works

 * (Prix J.I.-Segal, 2014)
 * Korosec-Serfaty, Perla, La Grand'place. Pratiques quotidiennes et identité de lieu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1986
 * Korosec-Serfaty, Perla, La Grand'place. Pratiques quotidiennes et identité de lieu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1986
 * Korosec-Serfaty, Perla, La Grand'place. Pratiques quotidiennes et identité de lieu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1986
 * Korosec-Serfaty, Perla, La Grand'place. Pratiques quotidiennes et identité de lieu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1986
 * Korosec-Serfaty, Perla, La Grand'place. Pratiques quotidiennes et identité de lieu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1986
 * Korosec-Serfaty, Perla, La Grand'place. Pratiques quotidiennes et identité de lieu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1986
 * Korosec-Serfaty, Perla, La Grand'place. Pratiques quotidiennes et identité de lieu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1986
 * Korosec-Serfaty, Perla, La Grand'place. Pratiques quotidiennes et identité de lieu, Paris, Éditions du CNRS, 1986