She is a theorist of domestic intimacy, hospitality and the appropriation of inhabited places,[1] and an expert in environmental psychology.

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.

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).

[5] Serfaty took an active part in the development of research in environmental psychology as well as in its institutional recognition.

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.