Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, Georganteli pursued her undergraduate and graduate studies in History of Art and Archaeology at Aristotle University and the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Before her current appointment, she was the Keeper of Coins at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts and Lecturer on Numismatics at the University of Birmingham, UK (2000-2016), where she spearheaded the conservation, digitization, and display of the Coins and Seals Collection, and directed the Birmingham University Graduate Program in Numismatics (2001-2012). From 2012-2016, she led two major European projects on Digital Humanities, Cultural Routes, and Heritage for the University of Birmingham, UK. Georganteli participated in archaeological fieldwork in Macedonia and Thrace (1988-1993), held curatorial positions in the British Museum (1994), the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (1998-1999), and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (1997-1998), and research fellowships and visiting positions in Europe (Greece, 1998-1999; UK, 1994-97, 1998-1999, Northern Ireland, 2005-2007) and the United States (Dumbarton Oaks, 1998, 1999-2000; HAA, Harvard University, 2012-2015). Her exhibitions at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts (2002-2012) regularly featured in the Sunday Times critical list. Her book Encounters. Travel and Money in the Byzantine World, co-authored with Barrie Cook (London, 2006), was the recipient of the Royal Numismatic Society Lhotka Memorial Prize for best publication. She received a 5-year Arts and Humanities Research Grant (AHRC) for academic excellence (2007-2012); a Clore Fellowship in Cultural Leadership (2008); a British Academy Grant (2008)-2009); and the prestigious Marie Curie Senior Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences (European Commission for Research and Innovation, 2013-2016). In 2011, she was awarded the Jan H Norbø Medal (Norwegian Numismatic Association) for Services to Numismatics. In recognition of her pedagogical excellence and innovation, she has received twelve Harvard Bok Center Awards for teaching excellence, the 2022 Provostial Fund, the Elson Family Arts Initiative Fund (2018, 2019, 2022), and the David Rockefeller International Experience Fund (2019). From 2018-2020, she served as the Managing Editor of the Harvard Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations (DARMC). She is the General Editor of the digital platforms The Art of Feasting, Whose Culture? The Curation and Management of World Heritage, and Money Matters. She sits on Harvard's Executive Committee of Byzantine Studies, and is the Co-Director of the Harvard Medieval Material Culture Series, the Academic Coordinator of the Harvard Study Abroad Program in Greece, and Board Member of the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture at Hellenic College Holy Cross.

A specialist in the arts of South-Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, Georganteli has published and taught on such topics as late antique and medieval art and numismatics, archaeology, portable antiquities collecting, cultural heritage and storytelling. She uses archaeological evidence, written sources and the changing patterns in the geography of transport to trace economic and cultural exchange in late antique and medieval Europe and the Middle East.