As an undergraduate student at Queens College, City University of New York in 1952, Keyishian became part of a committee that protested the firing of Professor Vera Shlakman for refusing to testify if she had ever been a member of the Communist Party.
[2][3] He and four colleagues challenged the Feinberg Law of New York State, which, their suit alleged, too broadly defined subversive activities and which improperly limited political association.
To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the decision, the American Association of University Professors honored Keyishian on June 17, 2017 at its annual awards luncheon "for his courage, integrity, and unstinting commitment to academic freedom."
From 1976 to 1985, Keyishian served as co-editor, with Martin Green and Walter Cummins, of The Literary Review: An International Journal of Contemporary Writing.
His published books are Michael Arlen (1976), Collected Essays on William Saroyan (1996), The Shapes of Revenge: Victimization, Vindictiveness, and Vengeance in Shakespeare (1996), and Screening Politics (2003).
From 1992-2018, he organized annual Shakespeare Colloquiums that brought speakers to campus each October for an audience of teachers, students, and the general public.