Shilanjani pursued a B.A. in Social Sciences and an M.A. in Women’s Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India. She has worked with the Tata Trusts and the Ministry of Women and Child Development in India in facilitating the implementation of the National Nutrition Mission. She is presently a joint doctoral researcher in the DFG Project 'From poor man’s food to nutri-cereals: Emergence of a new millet assemblage in Odisha, India' at the Frobenius Institute, Goethe University and University of Groningen. Her research focuses on socio-cultural dynamics of resurgence of millet cereals and related policy discourses in Odisha, India. The research explores how millets are emerging as actors of continuity and change that contribute to significant cultural transformations among tribal communities, especially in the realms of social organization, labour relations, cosmological ideas, and religious practices.