Duncan Hardy is a historian of late medieval and early Renaissance and Reformation Europe (around 1200 to 1500). This was a period of repeated crises and upheavals, but also immense creativity and experimentation. It continues to be a source of fascination and debate among scholars and the public. Students investigating this era, therefore, have considerable freedom to make up their own minds about how best to understand it, and Hardy’s courses encourage the discovery of a diverse array of texts, images, and objects from across Europe and beyond so students can develop new perspectives of their own, grounded in compelling evidence. Hardy’s research deals with, perhaps, the greatest interpretive challenge in European history: the Holy Roman Empire. Though predominantly German speaking, this sprawling entity deviates from the traditional story we tell about late medieval and Renaissance history, namely that it saw the birth of centralizing nation-states. The Holy Roman Emperors claimed to be the heirs of the Caesars and secular counterparts of the popes, but had little control over the lands of the Empire, which were fragmented among squabbling princes, bishops, and cities. In his publications, including two books to date, Hardy seeks to make sense of the Empire on its own terms. Rather than condemning the Empire for what it was not, his work sheds light on how it actually functioned, practically and ideologically.