The purpose of this course is to delve into the geographical and historical background of international stories appearing in the major news media. Two basic texts will be used: a comprehensive world atlas and the country newspaper of record, The New York Times. The topics of consideration will vary week by week, in accordance with the articles appearing in the Times. Lectures will be largely structured around the explication of maps. A wide array of cartographic products will be employed, ranging from historical maps to topographic maps to Google Earth images. Maps will also be examined with a critical eye, focusing not only on what they reveal, but also on what they obscure and how they can encode ideologically charged perspectives.