He was appointed as senior lecturer in the School of French at the University of New South Wales in 1972 and as associate professor in 1973.
His research included studies of the poetry of Paul Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire, of French language manuscripts in Australian libraries, and of the history of science.
For example, S. M. Bell and W. M. L. Bell, writing in The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies, describe Chaussivert's article ""Esthétique du taratantara verlainien" as: "A most interesting [article], showing how subtly and to what a variety of ends [Verlaine] modifies a metric form traditionally confined to popular poetry and song.
"[4] Similarly, Arnaud Bernadet singles out Chaussivert's essay "L'Art verlainien dans "'La Bonne chanson" for mention.
[5] Michel Morange highlighted Chaussivert's research into an Antipodean episode in the life of Louis Pasteur: Jean Chaussivert and his colleagues have described a little known episode of Louis Pasteur's life: how he rapidly responded to the internationally advertised reward created in 1887 by the Government of New South Wales in Australia for a biological method to eliminate rabbits.