Was there a Roman Empire in the Middle Ages?

The question posed in the title kind of haunts the field of Byzantine Studies as of late. Most Byzantinists remain adamant in their use of the term empire to designate the political entity under the centralized authority of the ruler of Constantinople until 1204, but also beyond that date, especially in the time between 1261 and 1453. Still, there have been various recent arguments that have problematised or challenged – vigorously or moderately – this established terminology, mainly from an etic perspective. In my paper, I shall offer some thoughts about possible ways that we can try to bridge emic and etic approaches to the ways we label and define the East Roman political and territorial entity. My focus will be on how we understand and apply analytical concepts such as empire, nation-state or kingdom to make sense of the different types of political community these concepts refer to, and which of those concepts seem to do more justice to an emic understanding of the Byzantine community, as this can be deduced from the evidence of our sources.