Stellar populations of galaxy bars and the distribution of stellar metallicity in galaxies

Stellar populations (SP) save imprints of the dynamical and chemical evolution of galaxies across cosmic time. Spatially resolved spectroscopic surveys offer the unique opportunity to study global and local drivers of SP in galaxies. In this talk, I will present results from two studies. First, I use an unprecedented sample size of >3 million spatial bins across 8000 galaxies in the MaNGA survey to investigate the distribution of stellar metallicity in nearby galaxies as a function of radius and stellar surface mass density in the global mass-morphology plane. Second, I use MUSE observation with high spatial resolution from the TIMER project to present detailed maps of star formation histories in bars of 9 nearby galaxies. I compare our data to state-of-the-art cosmological zoom-in simulations of barred galaxies and show that our MUSE observations can be explained by the dynamical influence of the bar on SP with different ages and kinematic properties.