In this article we depart from a conceptualisation of foreign language teaching as intercultural citizenship in schools and universities. We extend this conceptualisation by suggesting that foreign language teaching can and should also sensitise students about issues of human suffering and cultivate empathy, solidarity, hospitality and inclusion. In this way language education can create spaces for fostering political, ethical, and social justice responsibilities for changing socially unjust societies. We show how this suggestion was enacted in a higher education setting in Argentina with student teachers and student translators of English using pedagogies of discomfort and pedagogies of empathy and solidarity to deal with difficult issues through arts and literature.