Star Formation and Feedback in Low-metallicity Environments: From Molecular Clouds to Protostars

In this thesis, we explore the relationship between molecular clouds and star formation in the Magellanic Clouds – two nearby, low-metallicity companion galaxies to the Milky Way. We first examine variations in the behavior of common tracers of molecular gas, and derive physically motivated corrections for observational biases affecting Carbon Monoxide-based metrics of molecular cloud properties in low-metallicity environments. We then study molecular cloud dynamics and the progression of star formation in the young Small Magellanic Cloud star-forming region NGC 602. Finally, we explore machine-learning based techniques to identify pre-main-sequence stars in the active star-forming region N159 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.