Lavanya is a rural geographer and PhD scholar at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India, where she examines the intersections of innovation, entrepreneurship, and community development in the Himalayan region. Her doctoral research in Munsiyari, Kumaon, explores how cultural entrepreneurship initiatives catalyze rural regeneration. Her previous works investigated pathways for rebuilding rural spaces with women’s traditional knowledge. She has worked with IIT Guwahati on a project on regional food cultures and social dynamics and specializes in left-behind places and rural transformation; she contributes to academic discourse through her role as co-editor of Just Rural Futures and her work advancing feminist geography perspectives in spatial studies