Avigail Sachs teaches the history and theory of architecture and studies the design professions in the United States. She is especially interested in the relationship between design and research and the role of each in the formation of architectural practice. Her book Environmental Design: Architecture, Politics and Science in Postwar America, was recognized with an Award of Excellence by the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH) in 2019. Sachs is looking forward to implementing insights from this and related studies as Associate Dean for Research. Since moving to East Tennessee, Sachs has been fascinated by the history of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Working with Micah Rutenberg she created the book The Mechanized Landscape: Statecraft and Environment in the Tennessee Valley Authority. This project combines maps, photographs and text to examine how the TVA’s goals for a democratic society were implemented at multiple scales: across a region and in the lives of the people living in it. The TVA is also the subject of her book The Garden in the Machine: Planning and Democracy in the Tennessee Valley Authority, which focused on the transformation of utopian ideals into professional practice in architecture, landscape architecture and regional planning.