A Pulitzer Prize-winning author will kick off the 2002-’03 Humanities Lecture Series at Kansas University.

The series, sponsored by the Hall Center for the Humanities, is in its 55th year. Lecturers are nominated by KU faculty members.

“Each speaker is a recognized authority in his or her line of work, and each is capable of bringing an audience into the heart and soul of that work,” said Victor Bailey, the center’s director.

The lineup:

 Jared Diamond, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 in the Lied Center.

Diamond, a professor of physiology at the University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine, won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.”

Diamond’s lecture will be based on his book, which uses recent advances in molecular biology, plant and animal genetics, archaeology and linguistics to explain broad patterns of human history over the last 13,000 years.

 Robert D. Kaplan, 8 p.m. Nov. 21 in the Kansas Union Ballroom.

Kaplan, a correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, will discuss his 20 years of traveling and reporting experience.

 Paule Marshall, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20, 2003, in the Kansas Union Ballroom.

Marshall is author of such books as “Brown Girl, Brownstones” and “The Fisher King.”

Her lecture, “The Triangular Quest for Self and Community: Brooklyn-Barbados-Benin,” will discuss the principal locations of her novels, which focus on black immigrant communities and black women.

 David M. Bergeron, 7:30 p.m. April 3, 2003, at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art.

Bergeron, professor of English at KU, is a recognized scholar on William Shakespeare, civic pageantry and the Stuart royal family. His lecture will be titled, “Shakespeare in the Closet.”