The Institute for Interreligious Study and Dialogue (IISD) was founded with a mandate from the Dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America to academically respond to religious pluralism and diversity in the contemporary world and to foster interreligious understanding across different religious orientations.

IISD's goal is to promote interreligious scholarship and exchange in religion, theology and related disciplines, and across various religious traditions.  It seeks to facilitate the academic study and communal practice of interreligious dialogue.  IISD explores the impact of interreligious dialogue on faith traditions and how they might appropriate new insights or redefine themselves through it.