Tracing environmental impacts on galaxy evolution using the Magellanic Clouds and dwarf galaxies in the local volume

The relationship between star formation and environment is fundamentally linked to dwarf galaxy evolution. However, this relationship is complex, and the environment can produce non-uniform effects on star formation across the dwarf galaxy mass regime. Empirical relations like the morphology-density relation (MDR) characterize the behavior of galaxies' morphologies, colors, and star formation as a function of environmental density across a wide mass range (i. e. , galaxy's typically become redder, less star forming, and spheroidal/elliptical in more dense environments, and bluer and more star forming in less dense environments), but studies of exceptions to this pattern are needed to fully understand the interplay between a galaxy's immediate surroundings and impacts on its star formation. In this thesis, I present comparisons of environment to star formation in systems that do not follow the expectations of the MDR via (1) measurements of SFHs from resolved stellar populations in two interacting, star-forming Milky Way (MW) satellite dwarf galaxies, and (2) observations of a set of 17 relatively isolated, star-forming dwarf galaxies, beyond the virial radius of a massive host galaxy. First, we present the star formation histories (SFHs) of 15 spatially distributed regions across the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (S/LMC) using photometric data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program Scylla. Using primary and secondary burst metrics, we provide a standardized framework to identify broader and finer features of bursts of star formation and compare our findings with dynamical models of the LMC and SMC orbital histories. Our findings show that the global bursts between the Clouds are not synchronous, and that the most recent interaction may have stripped stellar populations from the LMC into the SMC wing. Second, we investigate the connection between the present-day environment and recent star formation in 17 nearby (D10⁹Msolar) host galaxy. We measure a correlation between environmental parameters (such as the nearest neighbor (NN), tidal index (Theta₁), and main disturber (MD) ) and a star formation metric, MFₓ, ₋, but with a galaxy's MFₓ, ₋ increasing as a function of decreasing distance from its neighbor. We find that galaxies with smaller separations from their neighbors are more likely to be star-forming, similar to dwarf-dwarf pairs (e. g. , Magellanic Clouds), but at larger pair separations. Third, we compare Scylla field star age-metallicity relations (AMRs) with metallicities reported in the literature for clusters in the same regions as the Scylla data. This work serves as a pilot study to test the methods and analyses that would be used in a full-scale comparison across all the regions for which an AMR was measured in Chapter 2. Based on a preliminary sample of clusters and Scylla AMRs in the southern LMC and the Wing/Bridge of the SMC, we find a moderate correlation between cluster star metallicities and Scylla AMRs and propose what additions would be necessary for a full study. Finally, I provide a brief overview of future prospects for studying environment, star formation, and their connection to dwarf galaxies using the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope (Roman). While Roman's observing time will be split between core community surveys (CCSs, ~75% of mission time) that have been pre-defined to meet the core science pillars of the program, and general astrophysical surveys (GASs, ~25% of mission time) that are proposed by the greater community, both sets of data have the potential to better constrain the MDR at redshifts 1