Pauline Sameshima is an educator, researcher, and creative based in Ontario, Canada, whose work bridges curriculum theory, arts integrated research, and social justice. Her scholarship often explores how creative practices can illuminate complex human experiences within educational and health contexts. Holding HIV emerged from her involvement in an international research project called HIV Obstruction by Programmed Epigenetics (HOPE), where scientific, clinical, and lived perspectives intersected.
Inspired by communities living and affected by HIV, Sameshima and her co-authors turned to poetry as a way to hold stories that resist purely technical explanation. The collection reflects a commitment to sharing lived experiences, navigating uncertainty, and making space for relational understanding. For Sameshima, poetry became both method and message—a way to engage readers not just intellectually, but affectively, in the ongoing dialogue between science, care, and humanity.