Abstract details

Dwarf galaxies are the most numerous galactic type in the Universe, and are well represented in the Local Group where they are found mostly as satellites to the Milky Way and M31. It is inevitable that most of our detailed information on their stellar content and structure comes from the nearby satellites of the Milky Way. Here, I detail recent efforts and results to study some of the more distant Local Group dwarfs, especially those around M31 and isolated systems. By comparing our results with each other and and with the Milky Way subgroup, we directly explore the effects of environment on dwarf galaxy evolution and show that the prevailing treatment of dwarf galaxies as simple dynamical systems supported by velocity dispersion is insufficient for most of these galaxies. Our results indicate a much more complex chemodynamical evolutionary process for these galaxies, and demonstrates the need for obtaining a complete census of their properties.