Lariviere was Visiting Lecturer in the South Asia Regional Studies Department of the University of Pennsylvania from 1978-79. He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa from 1980-1982. Lariviere was dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin from 1999 to 2006. He was executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of Kansas from 2006 to 2009.