The 2015-16 Hall Center for the Humanities Lecture Series will feature presentations on American conservatism, the daily life of residents in a poor Philadelphia neighborhood, what it means to be human, the Great Barrier Reef, human trafficking and the killing of Michael Brown.

Kansas University’s Hall Center for the Humanities, which arranges the lecture series, announced the schedule Friday. As usual, it contains several celebrated individuals from a range of disciplines. Times for some lectures have yet to be scheduled.

• 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at the Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union: New York Times best-selling author Rick Perlstein will chronicle the rise of modern American conservatism, beginning with Ronald Reagan, and how it still influences decisions on global warming, the financial crisis and the war in Iraq.

• 7:30 p.m. Oct. 21 at Spooner Hall: University of Wisconsin sociologist Alice Goffman will discuss the world of police beatings, court fees, low-level warrants and sentencing hearings that pervade daily life for young people in an area of Philadelphia.

• 7:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at Woodruff Auditorium: Journalist and entrepreneur Krista Tippett will discuss what it means to be alive, what it means to be human and how humans want to live. Tippett is a winner of the National Humanities Medal.

• Feb. 10, 2016 at Spooner Hall: Historian and explorer Iain McCalman will discuss how shifting perceptions of the natural world have shaped the Great Barrier Reef.

• March 22, 2016 at Spooner Hall: KU associate professor Hannah Britton will deliver a talk on human trafficking in the U.S. heartland.

• April 14, 2016 at the Lied Center Pavilion: Robin D.G. Kelley, a distinguished expert on African-American studies, will talk about the struggle for justice for Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and other victims, tracing a history all the way back to the slave trade.

The Humanities Lecture Series was founded in 1947 and is the oldest continuing series at KU.