Best PhD Programs for Bronze Age Archaeology?

[Pasiphae]

Hi all! I'm currently junior in undergrad and I'm beginning to take a look at PhD programs to apply to next fall! I'm very interested in Bronze Age archaeology, especially focusing on the Bronze Age Aegean. I know that the job market is incredibly frustrating and difficult to navigate at the moment so I'm trying to take a look at the best possible programs for this subject area. I know that the placement for certain schools is much better than others in terms of Classical Archaeology, but there isn't that much information on job outcomes for this specific subfield. It seems University of Cincinnati is pretty well regarded, and UPenn's Art and Archaeology of the Ancient Mediterranean also seems strong. The NRC rankings seem to be a little outdated and aren't very specific, so I would love to get this forum's perspective! 

[Archaeologist_1_2_3]

Your reading of the situation is essentially correct. Generally Cincinnati is regarded as the leading center for Bronze Age Archaeology in North America,and has been pretty dominant in the field for most of the last century. If you were committed to pursuing Bronze Age Studies for the PhD you'd probably want to apply to Cincinnati, Penn AAMW, Berkeley AHMA/Classics, MIchigan and UNC - these are probably the leading department for Bronze Age stuff. Places like  Brown or ISAW (NYU) would probably also appear on the list, but would allow less specialisation.  It is hard for Bronze Age people to get jobs period, but Cincinnati and Michigan in particular have decent placement rates, although the pandemic will clearly screw things up even more. 

[Archaeogirl]

Know this post was made a while ago, but just wanted to chime in to say absolutely agree with Archaeologist_1_2_3, but to also add UCLA to the list if you are interested in the whole Mediterranean. 

Aaron Burke works a lot with the Bronze Age Aegean and especially the Bronze Age Levant. There are a few other who also work with the Bronze Age, but it is definitely a more broad approach of the whole Mediterranean rather than Greece/Rome specific.